lass f"R4n3 Book .Al ;si:Nit:i) iiy ' I i i --1-:--- ^y - -^^^i^^cnpuon pnce per year. $5.00. March 5. iSSj. MACAULAY'S LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. __ ■>!> LIMITED or 739-7^1 BKoADWAY.NY, •JPyright \m, by o. M. DOMHiiL TO ALL READERS. Very little can be done to improve the surroundings of a woman who has not sense enough to use Sapolio. It is a simple but use- ful article. Perhaps you have heard of it a thousand times without using it once. If you will reverse the posi- tion and use it once you will praise it to others a thousand times. We have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in convincing women that their labor can be mate- rially reduced by using Sapolio, but we have fallen short of our am- bition if we have failed to convince you. MACAULAY'S LAYS OF ANCIENT EOME. WITH IVRY, AND THE ARMADA, CASSELL'S NATIONAL LIBRARY. MAOAULAY'S Lays of AifciEJNT Rome. irsr, AND THE ARMADA. CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited, 739 & 741 Broadway, New York. r^ y MACAULAY'S LAYS OF ANCIENT EOME. WITH IVBY, AND THE ABMABA, INTRODUCTION. Macaulay was, perhaps, at his best in his four "Lays of Ancient Rome." Whatever else he wrote required some qualities of mind other than those which have made all that he wrote popular. The " Lays of Ancient Rome " called into play just those powers which he had in perfection, and required no more. Powers that will ripen only in a meditative mind must remain unripe in the mintl of one whose frank and social nature keeps his. tongue continually busy. '•' If any one has any- thing to say," said Rogers, at one of his breakfasts, "let him say it now. Macaulay 's coming." He had only what were called flashes of silence, and a great part of his thinking must have been what came to him in association with the utterance of words. When he was not talking, he was chiefly i) INTRODUCTION. readinpf, for he read very much, and his marvellous memory caused what he read to stay by him, good or b;id. Most men are able to forget wliat is not worth keeping in mind, and may thank Heaven that they can. Macaulay, as a young child, went with his mother to pay a call, picked up from the draAving-room table one of Scott's long poems, then just published, read it through while the call lasted, and was able to repeat any quantity of it to his mother after they got home. He enjoyed Scott, and if he had never read Scott's metrical romances the style of these " Lays " would have shown imitation of some other poet. But Macaulay caught the swing of Scott's romance measure, made it a little more rhetorical, without loss — some might say rather with increase — of energy, and brought into play his own power of realising in his mind all that he told. In its expression of that power lies the great and abiding charm of Macaulay's " History. " If it be not whole truth it is as much truth as he saw, and he would INTRODUOTIOTSr. ?• see nothing that blurred the outlines of the picture formed in his own mind. Since few truths are so simple and single that they can be stated without any guard or reservation, the historian who thinks much has to convey to his reader many suggestions of doubt or hesitation. Macaulay took only one view, rejected all that clouded it, accepted all that helped to make it more distinct. He was one of the kindest and truest of men, intensely human ; his one view, whatever it might be, had his own life and feeling in it ; and when set forth in his own clear English, with short sentences that never needed to be lengthened by a qualifying clause — all as fact in broad sunshine about which there did not hang a cloud of doubt — it was, and is, and always will be, delightful reading. It will be thoroughly helpful reading too, for any one who knows the worth of a clear view boldly and honestly expressed, a,n(l is able cautiously to use it as aid to the forma- tion of his own opinion. To the untrained reader Macaulay, as historian, is a comfort That reader. 8 INTRODT7CTION. when he inquires, wants always upon every question a plain Yes or No. He dislikes the confusion of doubt. This was disliked also by Macaulay as an artist; and the reader who is only bothered by nice balancings of thought gets from Macaulay always the " plain answer to a plain question," the clear unhesitating Yes or No which others might con- sider to be no answer to any question that touches the complexities of human life. But in a ballad there are no complexities. It is a tale to be chanted to the people, bound only to be bright and lively, with ease in its rhythm, action in every line, and through its whole plan a stirring incident shown clearly from one pomt of view. It is a tale well told, without any pauses for a nice adjustment of opinion, but appealing simply and directly to a feeling common to us all. It is not concerned with the hard facts of history. Its immediate business may sometimes be to contra- dict them for the comfort of its hearers. Thus, in the first of these Lays, the old Roman INTKODUCTION. 9 story of three Romans who saved Rome by keeping the bridge over the Tiber against all the force of Porsena, was the ingenious softening of a cruel fact. It turned a day of deep humiliation into the bright semblance of a day of glory. For we learn from Tacitus and others that Porsena became absolute master of Rome. The Senate of Rome paid homage to him with offering of an ivory throne, a crown, a sceptre, a triumphal robe ; and he forbade the use of iron by the Romans in forging weapons or armour. The happy time of release from thraldom was long celebrated by a custom of opening auctions with a first bid for " the goods of Porsena." What did this matter ? The songs of tbe j eople were free to suppress a great <3efeat, and put in its place the myth of a heroic deed ; some small fact usually serving as seed that shall grow and blossom out into a noble tale. A ballad-maker who should stop the course of a popular legend to investigate its origin, and who should be dull enough to include that investigation 10 INTRODUCTION. in his song, would deserve to be howled to death by the united voices of his countrymen. Upon this ground, then, Macaulay was a master. TTiR incidents are fully realised. He sees what he sings. When Horatius strikes Astur in the face, the sword's course is followed *' through teeth, and skull, and helmet," till its point stands out a hand- ' -readth beyond. For its recovery — ** On Astur's throat Horatius Right firmly pressed his heel, And thrice and four times tugged amain, Ere he wrenched out the steel." The pimplicity and vigour of images drawn, like (lomer's, from Nature, is again in the truest and i>est spirit of the songs that house themselves among the people. The two pieces which are here appended to the " Lays of Ancient Rome " — " Ivry," and '* The Armada" — written much earlier, show in less perfect form the same easy swing of the music, the same tricks of style. Their close blood relationship to the " Lays " is seen in every feature, but they have INTRODUCTION. 11 not the same exquisite finish. In the " Lays,' as in the earlier pieces of his ballad writing, Macaulay liked to paint the stir of battle ; but in " Virginia " there are passages of another strain, and there m tenderness in the description of the main incident. But for " Virginia," some ungracious reader might say that the " Lays," being few, are excellent, but that if they Avere many they might weary by a too close likeness of each to the rest. As it is, the ungracious reader could make no such suggestion. We all read the book with full and natural enjoy- ment, and we call it perfect in its kind. H. M. v ; i PREFACE, That what is called the history of the Kings and early Consuls of Rome is to a great extent fabulous few scholars have, since the time of Beaufort, ventured to deny. It is certain that, more than three hundred and sixty years after the date ordinarily assigned for the foundation of the city, the public records were, with scarcely an exception, destroyed by the Gauls. It is certain that the oldest annals of the commonwealth were compiled more than a century and a half after this destruc- tion of the records. It is certain, therefore, that the great Latin writers of the Augustan age did not possess those materials without which a trust- worthy account of the infancy of the republic could not possibly be framed. Those writers own, indeed, that the chronicles to which they had access were filled with battles that were never fought, and Consuls that were never inaugurated ; and we have abundant proof that, in these chronicles. <■ vents of the greatest importance, such as the issue of the war with Porsena, and the issue of the war with Brennus, were grossly misrepresented. Under these circumstances a wise man will look with great suspicion on the legend which has come down to us. He will perhaps be inclined to regard the princes who are said to have founded the civil and religious institutions of Rome, the son of Mars, and the husband of Egeria, as mere mythological personages, of the same class with Perseus and Ixion, As he draws nearer and nearer to the con- fines of authentic history, he will become less and less hard of belief. He will admit that the most important parts of the narrative have some foundation in truth. But he will distrust almost all the details, not only because they seldom rest on any solid evidence, but also because he will con- stantly detect in them, even when they are within the limits of physical possibility, that peculiar character, more easily understood than defined, which distinguishes the creations of the imagina- tion from the realities of the world in which we live. The early history of Rome is indeed far more poetical than Anything else in Latin literature, The lo\^es of tie Vestal and the God of War, the PREFACE. 15 cradle laid among the reeds of Tiber, the fig-tree, the she-wolf, the shepherd's cabin, the recognition, the fratricide, the rape of the Sabines, the death of Tarpeia, the fall of Hostius Hostilius, the struggle of Mettns Curtius through the marsh, the women rushing with torn raiment and dishevelled hair heUveen their fathers and their husbands, the nio-htly meetings of Numa and the Nymph by the well in the sacred grove, the fight of the three Romans and the three Albans, the purchase of the Sibylline Books, the crime of TuUia, the simulated madness of Brutus, the ambiguous reply of the Delphian oracle to the Tarquins, the wrongs of Lucretia, the heroic actions of Horatius Codes, of Sc^vola, and of Cloelia, the Battle of RegiUus, won by the aid of Castor and Pollux, the defence of Cremem, the touching story of Coriolanus, the still more touching story of Virginia, the wild legend about the draining of the Alban lake, the combat between Valerius Corvus and the gigantic Gaul, are among the many instances which will at once suggest themselves to every reader. In the narrative of Livy, who was a man of fine imagination, these stories retain much of their genuine character. Nor could even the tasteless Dionvsius distort and mutilate them into mere 16 PREFACE. prose. The poetry shines, in spite of him, through the dreary pedantry of his eleven books. It is discernible in the most tedious and in the most superficial modern works on the early times of Rome. It eidivens the dulness of the Universal History, and gives a charm to the most meagre- abridgments of Goldsmith. Even in the age of Plutarch there were discern- ing men who rejected the popular account of tha foundation of Rome, because that account appeared to them to have the air, not of a history, but of romance or a drama. Plutarch, who was displeased at their incredulity, had nothing better to say iii' reply to their arguments than that chance some- times turns poet, and produces trains of events not to be distinguished from the most elaborate plots- which are constructed by art. But though the existence of a poetical element in the early history of the Great City was detected so many years ago, the first critic who distinctly saw from what source- that poetical element had been derived was James- Perizonius, one of the most acute and learned antiquaries of the seventeenth century. His- theory, which, in his own days, attracted little or no notice, was revived in the present generation by Niebuhr, a man who would have been the first. I PREFACE. ' 17 writer of his time, if his talent for communicating truths had borne any proportion to his talent for investigating them. That theory had been adopted by several eminent scholars of our own country, particularly by the Bishop of St. David's, by Professor Maiden, and by the lamented Arnold. It appears to be now generally received by men conversant with classical antiquity ; and indeed it rests on such strong proofs, both internal and ex- ternal, that it will not be easily subverted. A popular exposition of this theory, and of the evidence by which it is supported, may not be without interest even for readers who are un- acquainted with the ancient languages. The Latin literature which has come down to us is of later date than the commencement of the. Second Punic "War, and consists almost exclusively' of works fashioned on Greek models. The Latin metres, heroic, elegiac, lyric, and dramatic, are of Greek origin. The best Latin epic poetry is the feeble echo of the Iliad and Odyssey. The best Latin eclogues are imitations of Theocritus. The plan of, the most finished didactic poem in the Latin tongue was taken from Hesiod. The Latin ti-agedies are bad copies of the masterpieces of Sophocles and Euripides. The Latin comedies are free translations 18 ' PREFACE. from Demophiliis, Menaiider, and Apollodorus. Thii Latin philosophy was borrowed, without alteration, from the Portico and the Academy; and the great Latin orators constantly proposed to themselves as patterns the speeches of Demosthenes and Lysias. ,. But there was an earlier Latin literature, a literature truly Latin, which has wholly perished, which had, indeed, almost wholly perished long before those whom we are in the habit of regarding as the greatest Latin writers were born. That literature abounded with metrical romances, such as are found in every country where there is much curiosity and intelligence, but little reading imd writing. All human beings, not utterly savage, long for some information about past times, and are delighted by narratives which present pictures to the eye of the mind. Biit it is only in very en- lightened communities that books are readily accessible. Metrical composition, therefore, which in a highly civilised nation is a mere luxury, is in nations imperfectly civilised almost a necessary of Hfe, and is valued less on account of the pleasure which it gives to the ear than on account of the help which it gives to the memory. A man who can invent or embelUsJi an interesting story, and PREFACE. 19 put it into a form which others may easily retain in their recollection, will always be highly esteemed by a people eager for amusement and information, but destitute of libraries. Such is the origin of ballad-poetry, a species of composition which scarcely ever fails to spring up and flourish in every society, at a certain point in the progress towards refinement. Tacitus informs us that songs were the only memorials of the past which the an- cient Germans possessed. We learn from Lucan and from Amraianus Marcellinus that the brave actions of the ancient Gauls were commemorated in the verses of Bards. During many ages, and through many revolutions, minstrelsy retained its influence over both the Teutonic and the Celtic race. The vengeance exacted by the spouse of Attila for the murder of Siegfried was celebrated in rhymes, of which Germany is still justly proud. The ex])loits of Athelstane were commemorated by the Anglo-Saxons, and those of Canute by the Danes, in rude poems, of which a few fragments have come down to us. The chants of the Welsh harpers, preserved, through ages of darkness, a faint and doubtful memory of Arthur. In the Highlands of Scotland may still be gleaned some relics of the old songs about CuchuUin and Fin gal. 20 PflEFACE. The long struggle of the Servians against the Otto- man power was recorded in lays full of martial spirit. We learn from Herrera that when a Peru- vian Inca died men of skill were apjDointed to celebrate him in verses, which all the people learned by heart and sang in public on days of festival. The feats of Kurroglou, the great free- booter of Turkistan, recounted in ballads composed by himself, are known in every village of Northern Persia. Captain Beech ey heard the Bards of the Sandwich Islands recite the heroic achievements of Tamehameha, the most illustrious of their kings. Mungo Park found in the heart of Africa a class of singing-men, the only annalists of their rude tribes, and heard them tell the story of the victory which Damel, the negro prince of the JalofTs, won over Abdulkader, the Mussulman tyrant of Poota Torra. This species of poetry attained a high degree of excellence among the Castilians, before they began to copy Tuscan patterns. It attained a still higher degree of excellence among the English and the Lowland Scotch, during the four- teenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. But it reached its full perfection in ancient Greece ; for there can be no doubt that the great Homeric poems are generically ballads, though widely dis- PREFACE. 21 tinguished from all other ballads, and indeed from almost all other human compositions, by trans- cendent sublimity and beauty. As it is agreeable to general experience that, at a certain stage in the progress of society, ballad- poetry should flourish, so is it also agreeable to general experience that, at a subsequent stage in the progress of society, ballad-poetry should be undervalued and neglected. Knowledge advances : manners change : great foreign models of composi- tion are studied and imitated. The phraseology of the old minstrels becomes obsolete. Their versifi- cation, which, having received its laws only from the ear, abounds in irregularities, seems licentious and uncouth. Their simplicity appears beggarly when compared with the quaint forms and gaudy colouring of such artists as Cowley and Gongora. The ancient lays, unjustly despised by the learned and polite, linger for a time in the memory of the vulgar, and are at length too often irretrievably lost. We cannot wonder that the ballads of Rome should have altogether disappeared, when we re- member how very narrowly, in spite of the in- vention of printing, those of our own country and those of Spain escaped the same fate. There is indeed little doubt that oblivion covers many 22 PREFACE. English songs equal to any that were published by Bishop Percy, and many Spanish songs as good as the best of those which have been so happily translated by Mr. Lockhart. Eighty years ago England jDOSsessed only one tattered copy of Cliilde Waters and Sir Cauline, and Spain only one tattered copy of the noble poem of the Cid. The snutf of a candle, or a mischievous dog, might in a moment have deprived the world for ever of any of those fine compositions. Sir Walter Scott, who united to the tire of a great poet the minute curiosity and patient diligence of a great antiquary, was but just in time to save the precious relics of the Minstrelsy of the Border. In Germany, the lay of the Nibelungs had been long utterly for- gotten, when, in the eighteenth century, it was, for the first time, printed from a manuscript in the old library of a noble family. In truth, the only people who, through their whole passage from simplicity to the highest civilisation never for a moment ceased to love and admire their old ballads, were the Greeks. That the early Romans should have had ballad- poetry, and that this poetry should have perished, is therefore not strange. It would, on the con- trary, have been strange if these things had not PREFACE. 23 come to pass ; and we should be justified in pro- nouncing them highly probable, even if we had no direct evidence on the subject. But we have direct evidence of unquestionable authority. Ennius, who flourished in the time of the Second Punic War, was regarded in the Augustan age as the father of Latin poetry. He was. in trutli, the father of the second school of Latin poetry, the only school of which the works ha\e descended to us. But from Ennius himself wl" learn that there were poets who stood to hirii in the same relation in which the author of the romance of Count Alarcos stood to Garcilaso, or the author of the ''Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode " to Lord Surrey. Ennius speaks of verses which the Fauns and the Bards were wont to chant in the old time, when none had yet studied the graces of speech, when none had yet climbed the peaks sacred to the Goddesses of Grecian song. " Where," Cicero mournfully asks, " are those old verses now 1 " Contemporary with Ennius was Quintus Fabius- Pictor, the earliest of the Roman annalists. His account of the infiincy and youth of Romulus and Remus has been preserved by Dionysius, and contains a very remarkable reference to the ancient '24 PREFACE. Latin poetry. Fabius says that, in his time, his countrymen were still in the habit of singing ballads about the Twins. *-K\en in the hut of Faustulus," so these old lays appear to have run, "the children of Rhea and Mars were, in port and in spirit, not like unto swineherds or cow- herds, but such that men might well guess them to l>e of the blood of kinijs and gods." Cato the Censor, who also lived in the days of the Second Punic War, mentioned this lost litera- ture in his lost work on the antiquities of his country. Many ages, he said, before his time, there were ballads in praise of illustrious men ; and these ballads it was the fashion for the guests at banquets to sing in turn while the piper played. " Would," exclaims Cicero, " that we still had the old ballads of wliich Cato speaks ! " Valerius Maximus gives us exactly similar in- formation, without mentioning his authority, and observes that the ancient Roman ballads were probably of more benefit to the young than all the lectures of the Athenian schools, and that to the influence of the national poetry were to be ascribed the virtues of such men as Camillus and Fabricius. Vairo, whose authority on all questions con- nected with the antiquities of his country is PREFACE. 25 entitled to the greatest respect, tells ns that at banquets it was once the fashion for boys to sing, sometimes with and sometimes without instru- mental music, ancient ballads in praise of men of former times. These young performers, he ob- serves, were of unblemished character, a circum- stance which he probably mentioned because, among the Greeks, and indeed in his time among the Romans also, the morals of singing-boys were in no high repute. The testimony of Horace, though given inci- dentally, confirms the statements of Cato, Valerius Maximus, and Yarro. The poet pre- dicts that, under the peaceful administration of Augustus, the Romans will, over their full goblets, sing to the pipe, after the fashion of their fathers, the deeds of brave captains, and the ancient legends touching the origin of the city. The proposition, then, that Rome had ballad- poetry is not merely in itself highly probable, but is fully proved by dii^ect evidence of the greatest weight. This proposition being established, it becomes easy to understand why the early history -of tlie city is unlike almost everything else in Latin literature, native where almost everything else -Jii PREFACE. is liorrowed, imaginative where almost everything else is prosaic. We can scarcely hesitate to pro- nounce that the magnificent, pathetic, and truly national legends, which present so striking a con- trast to all that surrounds them, are broken and defaced fragments of that early poetry which, even in the age of Cato the Censor, had become anti- een forgotten. Such, or nearly such, appears to have been the process by which the lost ballad-poetry of Kome was transformed into history. To reverse that process, to transform some portions of early Koman history back into the poetry out of which they were made, is the object of this work. In the following poems tlie author speaks, not in his own person, but in the persons of ancienc I minstrels who know only what a Roman citizen, born three or four hundred years before the jChristian era, may be supposed to have known, and who are in nowise above the passions and prejudices of their age and nation. To these imaginary poets must be ascribed some blunders which are so obvious that it is unnecessary to point them out. The real blunder would have been to represent these old poets as deeply vereed in general history, and studious of chronological accuracy. To them must also be attributed the illiberal sneers at the Greeks, the furious party- spirit, the contempt for the arts of peace, the love of war for its own sake, the ungenerous exultation over the vanquished, which the reader will some- times observe. To portray a Roman of the age of PREFACE. 37 Camillus or Curius as superior to national anti- pathies, as mourning over the devastation and slaughter by which empire and triumphs were to be won, as looking on human suffering with the sympathy of Howard, or as treating conquered enemies with the delicacy of the Black Prince, would be to violate all dramatic propriety. The old Komans had some great virtues — fortitude, temperance, veracity, spirit to resist oppression, respect for legitimate authority, fidelity in the ob- serving of contracts, disinterestedness, ardent patriotism — but Christian charity and chivalrous generosity were alike unknown to them. It would have been obviously improper to mimic the manner of any particular age or country. Something has been borrowed, however, from our own old ballads, and more from Sir Walter Scott, the great restorer of our ballad-poetry. To the Iliad still greater obligations are due ; and those obligations have been contracted with the less hesitation, because there is reason to believe that some of the old Latin minstrels really had recourse to that inexhaustible store of poetical images. It would have been easy to swell this little volume to a very considerable bulk, by appending notes filled with quotations ; but to a learned 38 PREFACE. reader such notes are not necessary ; for an un- learned reader they would have little interest ; and the judgment passed both by the learned and by the unlearned on a work of the imagination will always depend much more on the general character and spirit of such a work than on minute details. Xa^9 of ancient IRome, HOEATIUS. There can be little doubt that among those parts of Early Roman history which had a poetical origin was the legend of Horatius Codes. We have ■several versions of the ^tory, and these versions differ from each other in points of no small im- portance. Polybius, there is reason to believe, heard the tale recited over the remains of some Consul or Praetor descended from the old Horatian patricians, for he introduces it as a specimen of the narratives with which the Romans were in the habit of embellishing their funeral oratory. It is remarkable that, according to him, Horatius de- fended the bridge alone, and perished in the waters. According to the chronicles which Livy and Diony- ;sius followed, Horatius had two companions, swam safe to shore, and was loaded with honours and rewards. 40 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. These discrepancies are easily explained. Our own literature, indeed, will furnish an exact parallel to what may have taken- })lace at Rome. It is highly probable that the memory of the war of Porsena was preserved by compositions much resembling the two ballads which stand first in the Relics of Ancient English Poetry. In both those ballads the English, commanded by the Percy, fight with the Scots, commanded by the Douglas. In one of the ballads the Douglas is killed by a nameless English archer, and the Percy by a Scottish spearman : in the other the Percy slays the Douglas in single combat, and is himself made prisoner. In tlie former, Sir Hugh Montgomery is shot through the lieart by a Northumbrian bow man ; in the latter he is taken, and exchanged for the Percy. Yet both the ballads relate to the same event, and that an event which probably took place within the memory of persons who were alive when both the ballads "vere made. One of the minstrels says : •' Old men that knowen the grounde well yeuoughe Call it the battell of Otterburn ; At Otterburn begap this spurne Upon a nionnyn day. Ther was the dougghte Doglas slean : The Perse never went away." HOEATIUS. 41 The other poet sums up tlje event in the follow- ing lines : *' Thys fraye bygan at Ofcterborne Bytwene the nyglit and the day : Ther the Dowglas lost hys lyfe, And the Percy was lede away." It is b J no means unlikely that there were two old Roman lays about the defence of the bridge ; and that, while the story which Livy has trans- mitted to us was preferred by the multitude, the other, which ascribed the whole glory to Horatius alone, may have been the favourite with the Horatian house. The following ballad is supposed to have been made about a hundred and twenty years after the war which it celebrates, and just before the taking of Rome by the Gauls. The author seems to have been an honest citizen, proud of the military glory of his country, sick of the disputes of factions, and much given to pining after good old times which had never really existed. The allusion, however, to the partial manner in which the public lands were allotted, could proceed only from a plebeian ; and the allusion to the fraudulent sale of spoils marks the date of the poem, and shows that the poet shared in the general discontent 42 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. with which the proceedings of Camillus, after the taking of Veii, were regarded. The penultimate syllable of the name Porsena Ijas been shortened in spite of the authority of Niebuhr, Avho pronounces, without assigning any ground for his opinion, that Martial was guilty of a decided blunder in the line, *' Hanc spectare manum Porsena non potuii" It is not easy to understand how any modern scholar, whatever his attainments may be — and those of Niebuhr were undoubtedly immense — can venture to pronounce that Martial did not know the quantity of a word which he must have uttered and heard uttered a hundred times before he left school. Niebuhr seems also to have forgotten that Martial has fellow-culprits to keep him in counte- nance. Horace has committed the same decided blunder ; for he gives us, as a pure iambic line, " Minacis aut Etrusca Porsense manus." Silius Italicus has repeatedly offended in the same way, as when he says, " Cernitur effugiens ardentem Porsena dextram :** and again, " Clusinum vulgus, cum, Porsena magne, jubebas.'* HOEATIUS. 43 A modern writer may be content to err in such company. Niebuhr's supposition tliat each of the three defenders of the bridge was the representative of one of the three patrician tribes is both ingenious and probable, and has been adopted in the follow^ ing poem. 44 LAYS OF ANCIENT KOjSIE. HORATIUS. A LAY MADE ABOUT THE YEAR OF THE CITY CXX3LX. Lars Porsena of Clusium Bj the Nine Gods he(swore That the great house of Tarquin Should suffer wrong no more. Bj the Nine Gods he swore it, And named a trusting day, And bade his messengers ride forth, East and west and south and north, To summon his array. IL East and west and south and north The messengers ride fast, And tower and town and cottage Have heard the trumpet's blast. Shame on the false Etruscan Who lingers in his home, When Porsena of Ciusjum Is on the march for Pome. HORATIUS. 45 III. The horsemen and the footmen Are pouring in amain From many a stately market-place-; From many a frnitful plain ; From many a lonely hamlet, Which, hid by beech and pine, Like an eagle's nest, hangs on the crest Of purple Apennine "&"■ IV. From lordly Volaterrse, Where scowls the far-famed hold Piled by the hands of giants For godlike kings of old ; From seagirt Populonia, Whose sentinels descry Sardinia's snowy mountain-tops Fringing the southern sky ; V. From the proud mart of Pisse, Queen of the western waves, Where ride Massilia's triremes Heavy with fair-haired slaves ; 46 LAYS OF ANCIENT EOME. From where sweet Clanis wanders Through corn and vines and flowers ; From where Cortona lifts to heaven Her diadem of towers. VI. Tall are the oaks whose acorns Drop in dark Auser's rill ; Fat are the stags that champ the boughs Of the Ciminian hill-; Beyond all streams Clitumnus Is to the herdsman dear ; Best of all pools the fowler loves The great Volsinian mere. I VII. But now no stroke of woodman Is heard by Auser's rill ; No hunter tracks the stag's green [)ath Up the Ciminian hill ; Unwatched along Clitumnus Grazes the milk-white steer ; Unharmed the water fowl may dip In the Volsinian mere. HORATIirS. VIII. The harvests of Arretium, This year, okl men shall reap, This year, young boys in XJmbro Shall plunge the struggling sheep ; And in the vats of Luna, This year, the must shall foam Round the white feet of laughing girls Whose sires have marched to Rome. IX. There be thirty chosen prophets, The wisest of the land, Who alway by Lars Porsena Both morn and evening stand : Evening and morn the Thirty Have turned the verses o'er, Traced from the right on linen white By mighty seers of yore. X. And with one voice the Thirty Have their glad answer given : " Go forth, go forth, Lars Porsena; Go forth, beloved of Heaven ; 47 48 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. Go, and return in glory To Clusium's royal dome ; And hang round Nurscia's altars The golden shields of Home." XI. And now hath every city Sent up her tale of men ; The foot are fourscore thousand, The horse are thousands ten . Before the gates of Sutrium Is met the great array. A proud man was Lars Porseua Upon the trysting day. XII. For all the Etruscan armies Were ranged beneath his eye, And many a banished Roman, And many a stout ally ; And with a mighty following To join the muster came The Tusculan Mamilius, Prince of the Latian name. HOBATIUS. XIII. But by the yellow Tiber Was tumult and affright : From all the spacious champaign To Rome men took their flight. A mile around the city, The throng stopped up the ways ; A fearful sight it was to see Through two long nights and days. XIV. For aged folks on crutches, And women great with child, And mothers sobbing over babes That clung to them and smiled, And sick men borne in litters High on the necks of slaves, And troops of sun-burned husbandmen With reaping-hooks and staves, XV. And droves of mules and asses Laden with skins of wine, And endless flocks of goats and sheep, And endless herds of kine, 49 LAYS OP ANCIENT ROME. And endless trains of waggons That creaked beneath the weight Of corn-sacks and of household goods, Choked every roaring gate. XVI. Now, from the rock Tarpeian, Could the wan burghers spy The line of blazing villages Red ill the midnight sky. The Fathers of the City, They sat all night and day, For every hour some horseman came With tidings of dismay. XVII. To eastward and to westward Have spread the Tuscan bands; Nor house, nor fence, nor dovecote In Crustumerium stands. Verbenna down to Ostia Hath wasted all the plain ; Astur hath stormed Janiculum, And the stout jruards are slain. HORATIUS. 51 xviir. I wis, in all the Senate, There was no heart so bold, But sore it ached and fast it beat, When that ill news was told. Forthwith up rose the Consul, Up rose the Fathers all ; In haste they girded up their gowns, And hied them to the wall. XIX. They held a council standing Before the River-Gate ; Short time was there, ye well may guess, For musing or debate. Out spake the Consul roundly : "The bridge must straight go down; For, since Janiculum is lost, Nought else can save the town." XX. Just then a scout came flying, All wild with haste and fear ; ** To arms ! to arms ! Sir Consul : Lars Porsena is here." 62 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. On the low hills to westward The Consul fixed his eye, And saw the swarthy storm of dust Rise fast along the sky. XXI. And nearer fast and nearer Doth the red whirlwind come ; And louder still and still more loud, From underneath that rolling cloud, Is heard the trumpet's war-note proud, The trampling, and the hum. And plainly and more plainly Now through the gloom appears. Far to left and far to right, In broken gleams of dark-blue light^ The long array of helmets bright, The long array of spears. XXII. And plainly and more plainly, Above that glimmering line, Now might ye see the banners Of twelve fair cities shine ; HORATIUS. 53 But the banner of proud Clusium Was highest of them all, The terror of the Umbrian, The terror of the Gaul. XXIII. /' , And plainly and more plainly Now might the burghers know, By port and vest, by horse and crest, Each warlike Lucumo. There Cilnius of Arretium On his fleet roan was seen ; And Astur of the four-fold shield, Girt with the brand none else may wield, Tolumnius with the belt of gold, And dark Verbenna from the hold By reedy Thrasymene. XXIV. Fast by the royal standard, O'erlooking all the war, Lars Porsena of Clusium Sat in his ivory car. By the right wheel rode Mamilius, Prince of the Latian name ; 54 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. Aud by the left false Sextus, That wrought the deed of shame^ XXV. But when the face of Sextus Was seen among the foes, A yell that rent the firmament From all the town arose. On the house-tops was no woman But spat towards him and hissed^ No child but screamed out curses, And shook its little fist. XXVI. But the Consul's brow was sad, And the Consul's speech was low^ And darkly looked he at the wall, And darkly at the foe. " Their van will be upon us Before the bridge goes down ; And if they once may win the bridge^ What hope to save the toNvn?" XXVII. Then out spake brave Horatius, The Captain of the Gate : HORATIUS. 55 " To every man upon this earth Death coineth soon or late. And how can man die better Than facing fearful odds, For the ashes of his fathers, And the temples of his Gods, XXVIII. " And for the tender mother Who dandled him to rest, And for the wife who nurses His baby at her breast, And for the holy maidens Who feed the eternal flame. To save them from false Sextus That wrought the deed of shame? XXIX. " Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul, With all the speed ye may ; I, with two more to help me, Will hold the foe in play. In yon strait path a thousand May well be stopped by three. Now who will stand on either hand, And keep the bridge with me 1 " 56 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. XXX. Then out spake Spurius Lartius ; A E-amnian proud was he : " Lo, I will stand at thy right hand, And keep the bridge with thee." And out spake strong Herminius ; Of Titian blood was he : " I will abide on thy left side, And keep the bridge with thee." XXXI. *' Horatius," quoth the Consul, " As thou sayest, so let it be." And straight against that great array Forth went the dauntless Three. For Romans in Rome's quarrel Spared neither land nor gold. Nor son nor wife, nor limb nor life, In the brave days of old. XXXII. Then none was for a party ; Then all were for the state ; Then the great man helped the poor, And the poor man loved the great : HOEATIUS. 57 Then lands were fairly portioned Then spoils were fairly sold : The Romans were like brothers In the brave days of old. XXXIII. Now Roman is to Roman More liateful than a foe, And the Tribunes beard the high, And the Fathers grind the low. As we wax hot in faction, In battle we wax cold : Wherefore men fight not as they fought In the brave days of old. XXXIV. Now while the Three were tightening Their harness on their backs, The Consul was the foremost man To take in hand an axe : And Fathers mixed with Commons Seized hatchet, bar, and crow. And smote upon the planks above, And loosed the props below. 58 LAYS Of ancient rome. XXXV. Meanwhile the Tuscan army, Right glorious to behold, Came flashing back the noonday light, Hank behind rank, like suro^es bris^ht Of a broad sea of gold. Four hundred trumpets sounded A peal of warlike glee. As that great host, with measured tread, And spears advanced, and ensigns spread, Kolled slowly towards the bridge's head, Where stood the dauntless Three. XXXVI. The Three stood calm and silent, And looked upon the foes. And a jjreat shout of laufjhter From all the vanguard rose : And forth three chiefs came spurring Before that deep array ; To earth they sprang, their swords they drew, And lifted high their shields, and flew To win the narrow way : HOEATIUS. 59 XXXVII. Aunus from green Tifernum, Lord of the Hill of Vines ; And Seius, whose eight hundred slaves Sicken in Ilva's mines ; And Picus, long to Ciusium Vassal in peace and war, Who led to fight his Umbrian powers From that grey crag where, girt with towers. The fortress of Nequinum lowers O'er the pale waves of Nar. XXXVIII. Stout Lartius hurled down Aunus Into the stream beneath : Herminius struck at Seius, And clove him to the teeth : At Picus brave Horatius Darted one fiery thrust ; And the proud Umbrian's gilded arms Clashed in the bloody dust. XXXIX. / Then Ocnus of Falerii Rushed on the Roman Three ; IiAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. And Lausulus of Urgo, The rover of the sea ; And Aruns of Yolsinium, Who slew the great wild boar, The great wild boar that had his den Amidst the reeds of Cosa's fen, And wasted fields, and slaughtered men, Along Albinia's shore. XL. / ' Herminius smote down Aruns : Lartius laid Ocnus low : Right to the heart of Lausulus Horatius sent a blow. *' Lie there," he cried, " fell pirate ! No more, aghast and pale, From Ostia's walls the crowd shall mark The track of thy destroying bark. No more Campania's hinds shall fly To woods and caverns when they spy Thy thrice accursed sail." XLI. But now no sound of laughter Was heard among the foes. HORATIUS. W. A wild and wrathful clamour From all the vanguard rose. Six spears' lengths from the entrance Halted that deep array, And for a space no man came forth To win the narrow way. XLII. But hark 1 the cry is Astur : And lo ! the ranks divide ; And the great Lord of Luna Comes with his stately stride. Upon his ample shoulders Clangs loud the fourfold shield, And in his hand he shakes the brand Which none but he can wield. XLIII. He smiled on those bold Romans A smile serene and high ; He eyed the flinching Tuscans, And scorn was in his eye. Quoth he, " The she-wolfs litter Stand savagely at bay : But will ye dare to follow, If Astur clears the way 1 " 62 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. XLIV. / 7 Then, Avhirling up his broadsword With both hands to the height, He rushed against Horatius, And smote with all his might. "With shield and blade Horatius Right deftly turned the blow. The blow, though turned, came yet too nigh; It missed his helm, but gashed his thigh : The Tuscans raised a joyful cry To see the red blood floAV. XLV. He reeled, and on Herminius He leaned one breathing- smce, Then, like a wild cat mad with wounds. Sprang right at Astur's face; Through teeth, and skull, and helmet, So fierce a thrust he sped, The good sword stood a hand-breadth out Behind the Tuscan's head. XLVI And the great Lord of Luna Fell at that deadly stroke, HORATIUS. 63 As falls on Mount Alvernus A thunder-smitten oak. Far o'er tlie crashing forest The giant arms lie spread ; And the pale augurs, muttering low, Gaze on the blasted head. XLVII. On Astur's throat Horatius Right firmly pressed his heel, And thrice and four times tugged amain. Ere he wrenched out the steel. " And see," he cried, " the welcome, Fair guests, that waits you here ! What noble Lucumo comes next To taste our Roman cheer 1 " XLVIII. But at his haughty challenge A sullen murmur ran. Mingled of wrath, and shame, and dread. Along that glittering van. There lacked not men of prowess, Nor men of lordly race ; For all Etruria's noblest Were round the fatal place. 64 ' LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. XLIX. But all Etruria's noblest Felt their hearts sink to see On the earth the bloody corpses, In the path the dauntless Three : And, from the ghastly entrance Where those bold Romans stood, All shrank, like boys who unaware. Ranging the woods to start a hare, Come to the mouth of the dark lair Where, growling low, a fierce old bear Lies amidst bones and blood. L. //^ Was none who would be foremost To lead such dire attack : But those behind cried " Forward ! " And those before cried " Back ! " And backward now and forward Wavers the deep array ; And on the tossing sea of steel, To and fro the standards reel ; And the victorious trumpet-peal Dies fitfully away. HORATIUS. LI. "Yet one man for one moment Stood out before the crowd ; Well known was he to all the Three, And they gave him greeting loud, *' Now welcome, welcome, Sextus ! Now welcome to thy home ! Why dost thou stay, and turn away 1 Here lies the road to Rome." LII. Thrice looked he at the city ; Thrice looked he at the dead ; And thrice came on in fury, And thrice turned back in dread : And, white with fear and hatred, Scowled at the narrow way Where, wallowing in a pool of blood, The bravest Tuscans lay. LIII. But meanwhile axe and lever Have manfully been plied ; And now the bridge hangs tottering Above -the boiling tide. 65 6Q LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. " Come back, come back, Horatius ! Loud cried the Fathers alh " Back, Lartius ! back, Herminius ! Back, ere the ruin fall ! " LIV. Back darted Spuriiis Lartius ; Herminius darted back : And, as they passed, beneath their feet They felt the timbers crack. But when they turned their faces, And on the farther shore Saw brave Horatius stand alone, They would have crossed once more* LV. But with a crash like thunder Fell every loosened beam, And, like a dam, the mighty wreck Lay right athwart the stream : And a long shout of triumph Rose from the walls of Rome, As to the highest turret-tops Was splashed the yellow foam. HOKA.TIUS. 67 LVI. And, like a horse unbroken When first he feels the rein, The furious river struggled hard, And tossed his tawny mane, And burst the curb, and bounded, Rejoicing to be free, And whirling down, in fierce career, Battlement, and plank, and pier. Rushed headlong to the sea. LVII. Alone stood brave Horatius, But constant still in mind ; Thrice thirty thousand foes Ijefore, And the broad flood behind. *' Down with him ! " cried false Sex bus. With a smile on his pale face. " Now yield thee," cried Lars Porsena, " Now yield thee to our grace." LVIII. Round turned he, as not deigning Those craven ranks to see ; Nought spake he to Lars Porsena, To Sextus nought spake he ; 68 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROMS. But he saw on Palatinus The white porch of his home ; And he spake to the noble river That rolls by the towers of Rome. LIX. «0h, Tiber! father Tiber ! To whom the Romans pray, A Roman's life, a Roman's arms, Take thou in charge this day ! " So he spake, and speaking sheathed, The good sword by his side, And with his harness on his back, Plunged headlong in the tide. LX. /O No sound of joy or sorrow Was heard from either bank ; But friends and foes in dumb surprise, With parted lips and straining eyes, Stood gazing where he sank ; And when above the surges They saw his crest appear. All Rome sent forth a rapturous cry, And even the ranks of Tuscany Could scarce forbear to cheer. HORATIUS. LXI. But fiercely ran the current, Swollen high by months of rain : And fast his blood was flowing ; And he was sore in pain, And heavy with his armour, And spent with changing blows : And oft they thought him sinking, But still again he rose. LXII. Never, I weeA, did swimmer, In such an evil case, Struggle through such a raging flood Safe to the landing place : But his limbs were borne up bravely By the brave heart within. And our good father Tiber Bore bravely up his chin. LXIII. " Curse on him ! " quoth false Sextus ; " Will not the villain drown "? 70 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. But for this stay, ere close of day We should have sacked the town ! " " Heaven help him ! " quoth Lars Porsena, " And bring him safe to shore ; For such a gallant feat of arms Was never seen before." LXIV, And now he feels the bottom : Now on dry earth he stands ; Now round him throng the Fathers To press his gory liands ; And now, with shouts and clapping, And noise of weef)ing loud, He enters through the River-Gate, Borne by the joyous crowd. LXV. They gave him of the corn-land. That was of public right, As much as two strong oxeoi Could plough from morn till night ; And they made a molten image, And set it up on high, And there it stands unto this day To witness if I lie. HORATIUS. 7i LXVI. It stands in the Comitium, Plain for all folk to see ; Horatius in his harness, Halting upon one knee : And underneath is written, In letters all of gold. How valiantly he kept the bridge In the brave days of old. LXVII. And still his name sounds stirring Unto the men of E-ome, As the trumpet-blast that cries to them To charge the Volscian home ; And wives still pray to Juno For boys with hearts as bold As his who kept the bridge so well In the brave days of old. LXVIII. And in the nights of winter. When the cold north winds blow, And the long howling of the wolves Is heard amidst the snow ; 72 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. When round tlip lonely cottage Roars loud the tempest's din. And the i^ood loijs of Al<^idus o o o Roar louder yet within ; LXIX. When the oldest cask is opened, And the largest lamp is lit ; When the chestnuts glow in the embers^ And the kid turns on the spit; When young and old in circle Around the firebrands close ; AVhen the girls are weaving baskets, And the lads are shaping bows ; LXX. When the goodman mends his armouFj, And trims his helmet's plume ; When the good wife's shuttle merrily Goes Hashing through tiie loom ; W^ith wee))ing and with laughter Still is the story told, How well Horatius kept the bridge In the brave days of old. 73 THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE EEGILLUS. The following poem is supposed to have been pro- duced about ninety years after the lay of Horatius. Some persons mentioned in the lay of Horatius make their appearance again, and some appellations and epithets used in the lay of Horatius have been purposely repeated : for, in an age of ballad poetry, it scarcely ever fails to hapjDen, that certain phrases come to be appropriated to certain men and things, and are regularly applied to those men and things by every minstrel. Thus we find, both in the Homeric poems and in Hesiod, /3tj? 'lipaKXtjeiri, TrepiKXvTOQ 'A/jipiyvtieiQ, ^t/iKTopoQ 'Apy£i(p6vTric, €7rTcnrv\oc Qtjfti], 'EXiyrjQ evek ifvuoixoio. Thus, too, in our own national songs, Douglas is almost always the doughty Douglas : England is merry England : all the gold is red : and all the ladies are gay. The principal distinction between the lay of 74 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. Horatius and the lay of the Lake Regillus is that the former is meant to be purely Roman, while the latter, though national in its general spirit, has a slight tincture of Greek learning and of Greek superstition. The story of the Tarquins, as it has come down to us, appears to have been compiled from the works of several popular poets ; and one, at least, of those poets appears to have visited the Greek colonies in Italy, if not Greece itself, and to have had some acquaintance with the works of Homer and Herodotus. Many of the most striking adventures of the house of Tarquin, before Lucretia makes her appearance, have a Greek character. The Tarquins themselves are represented as Corin- thian nobles of the great house of the Bacchiadae^ driven from their country by the tyranny of that Cypselus, the tale of whose strange escape Hero- dotus has related with incomparable simplicity and liveliness. Livy and Dionysius tell us that, when Tarquin the Proud was asked what was the best mode of governing a conquered city, he replied only by beating down with his staff all the tallest poppies in his garden. This is exactly what Herodotus, in the passage to which reference has already been made, relates of the counsel given to Periander, the son of Cypselus. The stratagem by THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 75 which the town of Gabii is brought under the power of the Tarquins is again obviously copied from Herodotus. The embassy of the young Tar- quins to the oracle at Delphi is just such a story as would be told by a poet whose head was full of the Greek mythology ; and the ambiguous answer returned by Apollo is in the exact style of the prophecies which, according to Herodotus, lured Croesus to destruction. Then the character of the narrative changes. From the first mention of Lu- cretia to the retreat of Porsena nothing seems to be borrowed from foreign sources. The villany of Sextus, the suicide of his victim, the revolution, the death of the sons of Brutus, the defence of the bridge, Mucius burning his hand, Cloelia swimming- through the Tiber, seem to be all strictly Komau. But when we have done with the Tuscan war, and enter upon the war with the Latines, we are again struck by the Greek air of the story. The Battle of the Lake Regillus is in all respects a Homeric battle, except that the combatants ride astride on their horses, instead of driving chariots. The mass of fighting men is hardly mentioned. The leaders single each other out, and engage hand to hand. The great object of the waniors on both sides is, as in the Iliad, to obtain possession of the spoils (<5 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. and bodies of the slain ; and several circumstances are related which forcibly remind us of the great slaughter round the corpses of Sarpedon and Patro- clus. But there is one circumstance which deserves especial notice. Both the war of Troy and the war of Regillus were caused by the licentious passions of young princes, who were therefore peculiarly bound not to be sparing of their own persons in the day of battle. Now the conduct of 8extus at Begilius, as described by Livy, so exactly resembles that of Paris, as described at the begin- ning of the third book of the Iliad, that it is diffi- cult to believe the resemblance accidental. Paris a})pears before the Trojan ranks, defying the bravest Greek to encounter him : Tpwalu ^6j/ irpoixaxi-C^v ' KXe^avZpos deoeidrjs, . ^Apyeic^f TrpoKa\i.C^TO iravras aplffTOVSy iuTifiiov /xax^craaOai eV alvrj STjiorfjTi. Livy introduces Sextus in a similar manner : *' Ferocem juvenem Tarquinium, ostentantem se in prima exsulura acie." Menelaus rushes to meet Paris. A Roman noble, eager for vengeance, spurs his horse towards Sextus. Both the guilty princes are instantly terror-stricken ; THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 77 iu irpofxaxoKTi. (paveura, KaTeTrATjyrj (p'lKoi/ ^rop' &i|/ 5' erdpcav (Is eOuos €;^a^eTO Krip' aAe^lvoiV, " Tarquinius," says Livy, "retro in agmen suorum infenso cessit hosti." If this be a for- tuitous coincidence, it is one of the most extra- ordinary in literature. In the following poem, therefore, images and incidents have been borrowed, not merely without scruple, but on principle, from the incomparable battle-pieces of Homer. The popular belief at Rome, fi'om an early period, seems to have been that the event of the great day of Kegillus was decided by supernatural agency. Castor and Pollux, it was said, had fought, armed and mounted, at the head of the legions of the commonwealth, and had afterwards carried the news of the victory with incredible speed to the city. The well in the Forum at which they had alighted was pointed out. Near the well rose their ancient temple. A great festival was kept to their honour on the Ides of Quintilis, supposed to be the anniversary of the battle ; and on that day sumptuous sacrifices were offered to them at the public charge. One spot on the margin of Lake Regillus was regarded during many ages with 78 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. superstitious awe. A mark, resembling in shape a horse's hoof, was discernible in the volcanic rock ; and this mark was believed to have been made by one of the celestial chargers. How the legend originated cannot now be ascer- tained : but we may easily imagine several ways in M'hich it might have originated ; nor is it at all necessary to suppose, with Julius Frontinus, that two young men were dressed up by the Dictator to personate the sons of Leda. It is probable that Livy is correct when he says that the Koman general, in the hour of peril, vowed a temple to Castor. If so, nothing could be more natural than that the multitude should ascribe the victory to the favour of the Twin Gods. When such was the prevailing sentiment, any man who chose to de- clare that, in the midst of the confusion and slaughter, he had seen two godlike forms on white horses scattering the Latines, would find ready credence. We know, indeed, that, in modern times, a very similar story actually found credence among a people much more civilised than the Romans of the fifth century before Christ. A chaplain of Cortes, writing about thirty years after the conquest of Mexico, in an age of printing presses, libraries, universities, scholars, logicians, jurists, and THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 79 statesmen, had the face to assert that, in one engage- ment against the Indians, Saint James had ap- peared on a grey horse at the head of the Castilian adventurers. Many of those adventurers were living when this lie was printed. One of them, honest Bernal Diaz, wrote an account of the expe- dition. He had the evidence of his own senses against the legend ; but he seems to have distrusted even the evidence of his own senses. He says that he was in the battle, and that he saw a grey horse with a man on his back, but that the man was, to his thinking, Francesco de Morla, and not the ever-blessed apostle Saint James. " Nevertheless," Bernal adds, " it may be that the person on the grey horse was the glorious apostle Saint James, ■and that I, sinner that I am, was unworthy to see him." The Rojnans of the age of Cincinnatus were probably quite as credulous as the Spanish subjects •of Charles the Fifth. It is therefore conceivable that the appearance of Castor and Pollux may have become an article of faith before the generation which had fought at Regillus had passed away. Nor could anything be more natural than that the poets of the next age should embellish this story, and make the celestial horsemen bear the tidings ■of victory to Rome. <{) LAYS OF ANCIENT KOME. Many years after the temple of the Twin God» had been built in the Forum, an important addi- tion was made to the ceremonial by which the state annually testified its gratitude for their pro- tection. Quintus Fabius and Publius Decius were elected Censors at a momentous crisis. It had become absolutely necessary that the classification of the citizens should be revised. On that classifi- cation depended the distribution of political power. Party spirit ran high ; and the republic seemed to be in danger of falling under the dominion either of a narrow oligarchy or of an ignorant and head- strong rabble. Under such circumstances, the most illustrious patrician and the most illustrious plebeian of the age were intrusted with the office of arbitrating between the angry factions ; and they performed their arduous task to the satisfac- tion of all honest and reasonable men. One of their reforms was a remodelling of the equestrian order ; and, having effected this reform, they determined to give to their work a sanction derived from religion. In the chivalrous societies of modern times, societies which have much more than may at first sight appear in common with the equestrian order of Rome, it has been usual to invoke the special protection of some Saint, and ta THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE RFGILLUS. 81 observe his clay witli peculiar solemnity. Thus the Companions of the Garter Avear the image of Saint George depending from their collars, and meet, on great occasions, in St. George's Chapel. Thus, when Lewis the Fourteenth instituted a new order of chivalry for the rewarding of military merit, he commended it to the favour of his own glorified ancestor and patron, and decreed that all the members of the fraternity should meet at the royal palace on the feast of Saint Lewis, should attend the king to chapel, should hear mass, and should subsequently hold their great annual as- sembly. There is a considerable resemblance between this rule of the order of Saint Lewis and the rule which Fabius and Decius made respecting the Roman knights. It was ordained that a grand muster and inspection of the equestrian body should be part of the ceremonial perfornied, on the anniversary of the battle of Regillus, in honour of Castor and Pollux, the two equestrian gods. All the knights, clad in purple, and crowned with olive, were to meet at a temple of Mars in the suburbs. Thence they were to ride in state to the Forum, where the temple of the Twins stood. This pageant was, during several centuries considered as one of the most splendid sights of Rome, In 82 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROMK. the time of Dionysius tlie cavalcade sometimes consisted of live thousand horsemen, all persons of fair repute and easy fortune. There can be no doubt that the Censors who in- stituted this august ceremony acted in concert with the Pontiffs, to whom, by the constitution of Eome, the superintendence of the public worship belonged ; and it is probable that those high re- ligious functionaries were, as usual, fortunate enough to find in their books or traditions some warrant for the innovation. The following poem is supposed to have been made for this great occasion. Songs, we know, were chanted at the religious festivals of Rome from an early j^eriod ; indeed, from so early a period that some of the sacred verses were popularly ascribed to Nu ma, and were utterly unintelligible in the age of Augustus. In the Second Punic War a great feast was held in honour of Juno, and a song was sung in her praise. This song was extant when Livy wrote ; and, though exceedingly rugged and uncouth, seemed to him not wholly des- titute of merit. A song, as we learn from Horace, was part of the established ritual at the great Secular Jubilee. It is therefore likely that the Censors and Pontiffs, when thev had resolved to THE BATTLE OP THE LAKE REGILLU8. 83 add a grand procession of knights to the other solemnities annually performed on the Ides of Quintilis, would call in the aid of a poet. Such a poet would naturally take for his subject the battle of Regillus, the a])pearance of the Twin Gods, and the institution of their festival. He would find abundant materials in the ballads of his predeces- sors ; and he would make free use of the scanty stock of Greek learning which he had himself acquired. He would probably introduce some wise and holy Pontiff enjoining the magnificent ceremonial, which, after a long interval, had at length been adopted. If the poem succeeded, many persons would commit it to memory. Parts of it would be sung to the pipe at banquets. It would be peculiarly interesting to the great Posthumian House, which numbered among its many images that of the Dictator Aulus, the hero of Regillus. The orator who, in the following generation, pro- nounced the funeral panegyric over the remains of Lucius Posthumius Megellus, thrice Consul, would borrow largely from the lay ; and thus some pas- sages, much disfigured, would probably find their way into the chronicles which were afterwards in the hands of Dionysius and Livy. Antiquaries differ widely as to the situation of 84 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. the field of battle. The opinion of those who sup- pose that the armies met near Corimfelle, between Frascati and the Monte Porzio, is at least plausible^ and has been followed in the poem. As to the details of the battle, it has not been thoiight desirable to adhere minutely to the accounts which have come down to us. Those accounts, indeed, differ widely from each other, and, in all probability, differ as widely from the ancient poem from which they were originally de- rived. It is unnecessary to point out the obvious imita- tions of the Iliad, which have been purposely in- troduced. 85 THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. A LAY SUNG AT THE FEAST OF CASTOK AND POLLUX, ON THE IDES OF QUINTILIS, IN THE YEAR OF THE CITY CCCCLI. I. Ho, trumpets, sound a war-note ! Ho, lictors, clear the way ! The Knights will ride, in all their pride, Along the streets to-day. To-day the doors and windows Are hung with garlands all, From Castor in the Forum, To Mars without the wall. Each Knight is robed in purpl*' AYith olive each is crowned ; A gallant war-horse under each ^' Paws haughtily the ground. While flows the Yellow Ptiver, 86 LAYS OF ANCIENT EOME. While stands the Sacred Hill, The proud Ides of Quintilis Shall have such honour still. Gay are the Mai-tian Kalends : December's Nones are gay : But the proud Ides, when the squadron rides, Shall be Rome's whitest day. II. Unto the Great Twin Brethren We keep this solemn feast. Swift, swift, the Great Twin Brethren Came spurring from the east. They came o'er wild Parthenius Tossing in waves of pine. O'er Cirrha's dome, o'er Adria's foam. O'er purple Apennine, From where with flutes and dances Their ancient mansion rings. In lordly Lacedaemon, The City of two kings, To where, by Lake Regillns, Under the Porcian height, All in the lands of Tusculum, Was fought the glorious fight. THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 87 III. Now on the place of slaughter Are cots and sheepfolds seen, And rows of vines, and fields of wheat, '? And apple-orchards green ; The swine crush the big acorns That fall from Corne's oaks. Upon the turf by the Fair Fount -' The reaper's pottage smokes. The fisher baits his angle ; The hunter twangs his bow ; Little they think on those strong limbs ^ That moulder deep below. Little they think how sternly That day the trumpets pealed ; How in the slippery swamp of blood ^ Warrior and war-horse reeled : How wolves came with fierce gallop, And crows on eager wings. To tear the flesh of captains, And peck the eyes of kings ; How thick the dead lay scattered Under the Porcian height ; How through the gates of Tusculum Raved the wild stream of flight ; LAYS OF AMCIENT ROME. And how the Lake Regillus Bubbled with crimson foam, What time tlie Thirty Cities Came foith to war with Rome. IV. But, Roman, when thou standest Upon that holy ground, Look thou with heed on the dark rock' ? That girds the dark lake round, So shalt thou see a hoof -mark Stamped deep into the flint : It was no hoof of mortal steed ) That made so strange a dint : There to the Great Twin Brethren Vow thou thy vows, and pray That they, in tempest and in fight, : Will keep thy head alway. V. Since last the Great Twin Brethren Of mortal eyes were seen, Have years gone by an hundred And fourscore and thirteen. That summer a Virginius Was Consul first in place ; THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 89 The second was stout Aulus, Of the Posthumian race. The Herald of the Latines From Gabii came in state : The Herald of the Latines Passed through Rome's Eastern Gate : The Herald of the Latines Did in our Forum stand ; And there he did his office, A sceptre in his hand. VI. " Hear, Senators and people Of the good town of Rome, The Thirty Cities charge you To bring the Tarquins home : And if ye still be stubborn, To work the Tarquins wrong. The Thirty Cities warn you. Look that your wails be strong." VIL Then spake the Consul Aulus, He spake a bitter jest : " Once the jay sent a message Unto the eagle's nest : — 90 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. Now yield thou up thine eyrie Unto the carrion-kite, Or come forth valiantly, and face '^l The jays in deadly fight. — Forth looked in wrath the eagle ; And carrion-kite and jay, Soon as they saw his beak and claw, ^ Fled screaming far away." VIII. The Herald of the Latines Hath hied him back in state ; The Fathers of the City Are met in high debate. Then spake the elder Consul, An ancient man and wise : ^ Now hearken. Conscript Fathers, To that which I advise. In seasons of great peril 'Tis good that one bear sway ; Then choose we a Dictator, Whom all men shall obey. Camerium knows how deeply The sword of Aulus bites, THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 91 And all our city calls liim The man of seventy fights. Then let him be Dictator For six months and no more, And have a Master of the Knights, ) And axes twenty-four." IX. So Aiilus was Dictator, The man of seventy fights : He made ^butius Elva His Master of the Knights. On the third morn thereafter, At dawning of the day, Did Aulus and ^butius Set forth with their array. Sempronius Atratinus Was left in charge at home With boys, and with grey-headed men, '^ To keep the walls of Rome. Hard by the Lake Regillus Our camp was pitched at night : Eastward a mile the Latines lay. Under the Porcian height. Ear over hill and valley Their mighty host was spread ; 92 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. And with their thousand watch-fires The midnight sky was red. X. Up rose the golden morning Over the Porcian height, The proud Ides of Quintilis Marked evermore with white, Not without secret trouble Our bravest saw the foes ; For girt by threescore thousand spears, ^ The thirty standards rose. From every warlike city That boasts the Latian name, Foredoomed to dogs and vultures, That gallant army came ; From Setia's purple vineyards, From jSTorba's ancient wall, From the white streets of Tusculum, ^ The proudest town of all ; From where the Witch's Fortress O'erhangs the dark blue seas ; From tlie still glassy lake that sleeps '1) Beneath Aricia's trees — Those trees in whose dim shadow The ghastly priest doth reign, THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 93 The priest who slew the slayer, And shall himself be slain ; From the drear banks of XJfens, Where flights of marsh-fowl play, And buffaloes lie wallowing Through the hot summer's day ; From the gigantic watch-towers, No work of earthly men, Whence Cora's sentinels o'erlooked The never-ending fen ; From the Laurentian jungle, The wild hog's reedy home ; From the green steeps whence Anio leaps In floods of snow-white foam. XI. Aricia, Cora, Norba, Velitr^, with the might Of Setia and of Tusculum, Were marshalled on the right : The leader was Mamilius, Prince of the Lat^an name ; Upon his head a helmet Of red gold shone like flame : High on a gallant charger Of dark-grey hue he rode : 94 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. Over his gilded armour A vest of purple flowed, Woven in the land of sunrise '*' By Syria's dark-browed daughters, And by the sails of Carthage brought Far o'er the southern waters. XII. Lavinium and Laurentum Had on the left their post, With all the baniiers of the marsh, ^ And banners of the coast. Their leader was false Sextus, That wrought the deed of shame : With restless pace and haggard face To his last field he came. Men said he saw strange visions Which none beside might see, And that strange sounds were in his ears % Which none might hear but he. A woman fair and stately, But pale as are the dead, Oft through the watches of the night ^ Sat spinning by his bed. And as she plied the distaff. In a sweet voice and low, THE BATTLE OP THE LAKE REGILLTJS. 95 She sang of great old houses, And fights fought long ago. So spun she, and so sang she, Until the east was grey, Then pointed to her bleeding breast, And shrieked, and fled away. xin. But in the centre thickest Were ranged the shields of foes, And from the centre loudest The cry of battle rose. There Tibur marched and Pedum Beneath proud Tarquin's rule, And Ferentinum of the rock, / And Gabii of the pool. There rode the Volscian succours : There, in a dark stern ring, The Roman exiles gathered close f Around .the ancient king. Though white as Mount Soracte, When winter nights are long, His beard flowed down o'er mail and belt, - His heart and hand were stronof ; Under his hoary eyebrows Still flashed forth quenchless rage. 96 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. And, if the lance shook in his gripe, 'Twas more with hate than age. Close at his side was Titus On an Apulian steed, Titus, the youngest Tarquin, Too good for such a breed. XIV. Now on each side the leaders Give signal for the charge ; And on each side the footmen Strode on with lance and targe ; And on each side the horsemen Struck tlieir spurs deej) in gore; And front t© front the armies Met with a mighty roar : And under that great battle The earth with blood was red ; And, like the Pomptine fog at mom, The dust hung overhead ; And louder still and louder Rose from the darkened field The braying of the war-horns, The clang of sword and shield. The rush of squadrons sweeping Like whirlwinds o'er the plain, THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE BEGILLXIS. 97 The shouting of the slayers, And screeching of the slain. XV. False Sextus rode out foremost ; ■ His look was high and bold ; His corselet was of bison's hide, Plated with steel and gold. As glares the famished eagle From the Digentian rock On a choice lamb that bounds alone / Before Bandusia's flock, Herminius glared on Sextus, And came with eagle speed, • Herminius on black Auster, Brave champion on brave steed ; In his right hand the broadsword That kept the bridge so well. And on his helm the crown he won When proud Fidense felL Woe to the maid whose lover Shall cross his path to-day ! False Sextus saw, and trembled, And turned, and fled away. As turns, as flies, the woodman In the Calabrian brake, &8 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. When throiigli the reeds gleams the round eye f Of that fell speckled snake ; So turned, so fled^ false Sextus, And hid him in the rear, Behmd the dark Lavinian ranks, V Bristling with crest and spear, XVI. But far to north ^^butius, The Master of the Knights, Gave Tubero of Norba To feed the Porcian kites. Kext under those red horse-hoofs riaccus of Setia lay ; Better had he been pruning Among his elms that day. Mamilius saw the slaughter, And tossed his golden crest, And towards the Master of the Knights ' Through the thick battle pressed ^butius smote Mamilius So fiercely on the shield That the great lord of Tusculum Well nigh rolled on the held. THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 99 Mamilius smote ^butius, With a good aim and true, Just where the neck and shoulder join, / And pierced him through and through ; And brave JEbutius Elva Fell swooning to the ground \ But a thick wall of bucklers Encompassed him around. His clients from the battle Bare him some little space, And filled a helm from the dark lake, ; And bathed his brow and face ; /' And when at last he opened His swimming eyes to light, Men say, the earliest word he spake Was, " Friends, how goes the fight % " XVII. But meanwhile in the centre Great deeds of arms were wrought ; There Aulus the Dictator And there Valerius fought Aulus with his good broadsword A bloody passage cleared To where, amidst the thickest foes, He saw the long white beard. 100 LA.YS OF ANCIENT ROME. Flat lighted that good broadsword Upon proud Tarquin's head. He dropped the lance : he dropped the reins : He fell as fall the dead. Down Aulus s])rings to slay him, With eyes like coals of fire ; But faster Titus hath sprung down, ; And hath bestrode his sire. Latian captains, Eoman knights, Fast down to earth they spring, And hand to hand they fight on foot Around the ancient king. First Titus gave tall Cceso A death wound in the face : Tall Cseso was the bravest man 5 Of the brave Fabian race : Aulus slew Kex of Gabii, The priest of Juno's shrine ; Valerius smote down Julius, Of Rome's great Julian line ; Julius, who left his mansion High on the Velian hill, And through all turns of weal and woe " Followed proud Tarquin still. Now right across proud Tarquin 101 THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLTTS. A corpse was Julius laid ; And Titus groaned with rage and grief, / And at Valerius made. Valerius struck at Titus, And lopped off half his crest ; But Titus stabbed Valerius A span deep in the breast. Like a mast snapped by the tempest, f Valerius reeled and fell. Ah ! woe is me for the good house That loves the people well I Then shouted loud the Latines ; And with one rush they bore The struggling Romans backward Three lances' length and more : And up they took proud Tarquin, And laid him on a shield, And four strong yeomen bare him, Still senseless, from the held. XVIII. But fiercer grew the fighting Around Valerius dead ; For Titus dragged him by the foot, And Aulus by the head. 102 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. " On, Latines, on ! " quoth Titus, " See bow the rebels fly ! " " Romans, stand tirni ! " quoth Aulus, " And win this fight or die ! They must not give Valerius To raven and to kite ; For aye Valerius loathed the wrong, ^ And aye upheld the right : And for your wives and babies In the front rank he fell. Now play the men for the good house That loves the people well ! " XIX. Then tenfold round the body The roar of battle rose, Like tlie roar of a burning forest, '' When a strong north wind blows. Now backward, and now forward, Rocked furiously the fray, Till none could see Valerius, And none wist where he lay. For shivered arms and ensigns Were heaped there in a mound, And corpses stiff, and dying men Tliat writhed and gnawed the ground ; THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE KEGILLUS. 103 And wounded liorses kicking, And snorting purple foam : flight well did such a couch befit A Consular of Rome. XX. But north looked the Dictator ; North looked he long and hard ; And spake to Caius Cossus, The Captain of his Guard : *' Caius, of all the Romans Thou hast the keenest sight ; Say, what through yonder storm of dust Comes from the Latian right 1 " XXI. Then answered Caius Cossus, '•I see an evil sight ; The banner of proud Tusculum Comes from the Latian right : I see the plumed horsemen ; And far before the rest I see the dark-grey charger, I see the purple vest ; I see the golden helmet That shines far off like flame : 104 IiAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. So ever rides Mamilius, Prince of the Latian name/' XXII, " Now hearken, Cains Cossus : Spring on thy horse's back ; Eide as the wolves of Apennine "Were all upon thy track ; Haste to our southward battle : And never draw thy rein Until thou find Herminius, And bid him come amain." XXIII. So Aulus spake, and turned him Again to that fierce strife ; And Caius Cossus mounted, And rode for death and life. Loud clanged beneath his horse-hoofs The helmets of the dead, And many a curdling pool of blood 1 Splashed him from heel to head. So came he far to southward. Where fought the Roman host, Against the banners of the marsh Ajid banners of the coast. THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLTJS. lOS Like corn before the sickle The stout Lavinians fell, Beneath the edge of the true sword That kept the bridge so well. XXIV. " Herminius ! Aulus greets thee ; He bids thee come with speed, To help our central battle, For sore is there our need. There wars the youngest Tarquin, And there the Crest of Flame, The Tusculan Mamilius, Prince of the Latian name. Valerius hath fallen fighting In front of our array : And Aulus of the seventy fields f Alone upholds the day." XXV. Herminius beat his bosom : But never a word he spake. 7 He clapped his hand on Auster's mane : He gave the reins a shake, Away, away went Auster, Like an arrow from the bow : 7 r 106 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. Black Auster was the fleetest steed From Autidus to Po. XXVI. Right glad were all the E-omans Who, in that hour of dread, Against great odds bare up the war Around Valerius dead, When from the south the cheering Rose with a mighty swell ; " Herminius comes, Herminius, Who kept the bridge so well ! " XXVII. Mamilius spied Herminius, And dashed across the way. ** Herminius ! I have sought thee Through many a bloody day. One of us two, Herminius, Shall never more go home. I will lay on for Tusculum, "^ And lay thou on for Rome I " XXVIII. All round them paused the battlei While met in mortal fray THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 107 The Boraan and the Tusculan, The horses black and grey. Herminins smote Mamilius Through breast-plate and through breast; And fast flowed out the purple blood Over the purple vest. Mamilius smote Herminius Through head-piece and through head ; And side by side those chiefs of pride Together fell down dead. Down fell they dead together In a great lake of gore ; And still stood all who saw them fall While men miglit count a score. XXIX. Fast, fast, with heels wild spurning, The dark-grey charger fled : He burst through ranks of fighting men, j He sprang o'er heaps of dead. His bridle far out-streaming, His flanks all blood and foam, He sought the southern mountains, The mountains of his home. The pass was steep and rugged. The wolves they howled and whined • 108 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. But he ran like a whirlwind up the pass. And he left the woh^es behind. Through many a startled hamlet Thundered his flying feet ; He rushed through the gate of Tusculum, He rushed up the long white street ; 7 He rushed by tower and temple, And paused not from his race Till he stood before his master's door / In the stately market-place. '/ And straightway round him gathered A pale and trembling crowd, And when they knew him, cries of rage 5 Brake forth, and wailing loud ; And women rent their tresses For their great prince's fall ; And old men girt on their old swords, /^ And went to man the wall. XXX. But, like a graven image, Black Auster kept his place, And ever wistfully he looked d Into his master's face. The raven mane that daily, With pats and fond caresses, '] THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 109 The young Herminia washed and combed . And twined in even tresses, "I And decked with coloured ribands From her own gay attire, Hung sadly o'er her father's corpse -/ In carnage and in mire. Forth with a shout sprang Titus, And seized black Auster's rein. Then Aulus sware a fearful oath, 5 And ran at him amain. "The furies of thy brother With me and mine abide, If one of your accursed house Upon black Auster ride ! " As on an Alpine watch-tower From heaven comes down the flame, Full on tlie neck of Titus The blade of Aulus came : And out the red blood spouted, In a wide arch and tall, As spouts a fountain in the court Of some rich Capuan's hall. The knees of all the Latines Were loosened with dismay When dead, on dead Herminius, The bravest Tarquin lay. 110 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. XXXI. And Aulus the Dictator Stroked A lister's rav^eri mane, With heed he looked unto the girths, With heed unto the rein. " Now hear me well, black Auster, Into yon thick array ; And thou and I will have revenjre For thy good lord this day." XXXII. So spake he ; and was buckling Tighter black Auster's band, When he was aware of a princely pair That rode at his right hand. So like they were, no mortal Might one from other know : White as snow their armour was : Their steeds were white as snow. Never on earthly anvil Did such rare armour gleam ; And never did such gallant steeds Drink of an earthly stream. THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE EEGLLLUS. Ill XXXIIL And all who saw them trembled, And pale grew every cheek ; And Aulus the Dictator Scarce gathered voice to speak. *' Say by what name men call you ? What cit}'- is your home ? And wherefore ride ye in such guise Before the ranks of Rome 1 " XXXIV. ** By many names men call us ; In many lands we dwell : Well Samothracia knows us ; Gyrene knows us well. Our house in gay Tarentum Is hung each morn with fiowera: High o'er the mast of Syracuse Our marble portal towers ; But by the proud Eurotas Is our dear native home ; And for the right we come to fight / Before the ranks of Kome." 112 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. XXXV. So answered those strange horsemen. And each couched low his spear ; And forthwith all the ranks of Rom© / Were bold, and of good cheer : And on the thirty armies Came wonder and affright, And Ardea wavered on the left, ^ And Cora on the right. " Rome to the charge ! " cried Aulus ; " The foe begins to yield ! Charge for the hearth of Vesta ! Charge for the Golden Shield ! Let no man stop to plunder, But slay, and slay, and slay ; The gods who live for ever Are on our side to-day." XXXVI. Then the fierce trumpet-flourish From eartli to heaven arose. The kites know well the long stern swell That bids the Romans close. Then the good sword of Aulus Was lifted up to slay : THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLTJS, 113 Then, like a crag clown Apennine, Rushed Auster through the fray. Eut under those strange horsemen Still thicker lay the slain ; And after those strange horses Black Auster toiled in vain. Behind them Rome's long battle Came rolling on the foe, Ensigns dancing wild above, Blades all in line below. So comes the Po in flood-time Upon the Celtic plain : So comes the squall, blacker than night, Upon the Adrian main. Now, by our Sire Quirinus, It was a goodly sight To see the thirty standards Swept down the tide of flight. So flies the spray of Adria When the black squall doth blow, So corn-sheaves in the flood-time Spin down the whirling Po. False Sextus to the mountains Turned first his horse's head ; And fast fled Ferentinum, And fast Lanuvium fled. 114 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. The horsemen of Nomeiituni Spurred hard out of the fray ; The footmen of Yelitrae Threw shiekl and spear away. And underfoot was trampled, Amidst the mud and gore, The banner of proud Tusculunr, 7 That never stooped befoi-e : And down went Flavins Faustus, Who led his stately ranks From where the apple blossoms ware On Anio's echoing bunks, And Tullus of Arpinum, Chief of the Yolscian aids, And Metius with the long fair curls, ' The love of Anxur's maids. And the white head of Vulso, The great Arician seer, And Nepos of Laurentum, The hunter of the deer ; And in the back false Sextus Felt the good Roman steel, And wriggling in the dust he died Like a worm beneath the wheel: And fliers and pursuers Were mingled in a mass • THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 115 And far away the battle Went roaring through the pass. XXXVII. Sempronius Atratinus Sate in the Eastern Gate, Beside him were three Fathers, Each in his chair of state; Fabius, whose nine stout grandsons That day were in the field, And Manlius, eldest of the Twelve f Who kept the Golden Shield; And Sergius, the High Pontiff, For wisdom far renowned ; In all Etruria's colleges Was no such Pontiff found. And all around the portal, And high above the wall. Stood a great throng of people, But sad and silent all ; Young lads, and stooping elders That might not bear the mail, Matrons with lips that quivered. And maids with faces pale. Since the first gleam of daylight, Sempronius had not ceased 116 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. To listen for the rushing Of horse-hoofs from the east. The mist of eve was rising, The sun was hastening down, When he was aware of a princely pair Fast pricking towards the town. So like they were, man never Saw twins so like before ; Red with gore their armour was, Their steeds were red with gore. XXXVIII. " Hail to the great Asylum ! Hail to the hill-tops seven 1 ^ Hail to the lire that burns for aye, : And the shield that fell from heaven I 1 This day, by Lake Regillus, Under the Porcian height, All in the lands of Tusculum ^ Was fought a glorious fight. To-morrow your Dictator Shall bring in triumph home The spoils of thirty cities To deck the shrines of Rome 1 " THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS. 117 XXXIX. Then burst from that great concourse A shout that shook the towers, And some ran north, and some ran south, Crying, "The day is ours ! " But on rode these strange horsemen, With slow and lordly pace ; And none who saw their bearing Durst ask their name or race. On rode they to the Forum, While laurel boughs and flowers. From house-tops and from windows, Fell on their crests in showers. When they drew nigh to Vesta, They vaulted down amain, And washed their horses in the well That springs by Vesta's fane. And straight again they mounted, And rode to Vesta's door ; Then, like a blast, away they passed, " And no man saw them more. XL. And all the people trembled, And pale grew every cheek ; 118 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. And Sergius the High Pontiff Alone found voice to speak : " The gods who live for ever Have fought for Rome to-day ! These be the Great Twin Bretliren To whom the Dorians pray. Back comes the cliief in triumph, Who, in the hour of fight, Hath seen the Great Twin Brethren In harness on liis right. Safe comes the shij) to haven, Through billows and through gales, If once the Great Twin Brethren Sit shining on the sails. Wherefore tliey washed theii- horses In Vesta's holy well. Wherefore they rode to Vesta's door, I know, but may not tell. Here, hard by Vesta's Temple, Build we a stately dome Unto the Great Twin Bretliren Who fought so well for Rome. And when the months returning Bring back this day of fight, ' -. The proud Ides of Quintilis, Mark(>d evermore with white, THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE BEGILLUS. 119 Unto tlie Great Twin Brethren Let all the people throng, With chaplets and with offerings, With music and with song ; And let the doors and windows Be hung witli garlands all, And let the Knights be sunnnoned To Mars without the wall ; Thence let them ride in purple With joyous trumpet-sound, Each mounted on his war-horse, And each with olive crowned ; And pass in solemn order Before the sacred dome, Where dwell the Great Twin Brethren Who fought so well for Home ! ' 120 LAYS OF ANCIENT EOME. VIRGINIA. A COLLECTION consisting exclusively of war-songs would give an imperfect, or rather an erroneous, notion of the spirit of the old Latin ballads. The Patricians, during more than a century after the expulsion of the Kings, held all the high military commands. A Plebeian, even though, like Lucius Siccius, he were distinguished by his valour and knowledge of war, could serve only in subordinate posts. A minstrel, therefore, who wished to cele- brate the early triumphs of his country, could hardly take any but Patricians for his heroes. The warriors who are mentioned in the two pre- ceding lays, Horatius, Lartius, Herniinius, Aulus Postumius, ^butius Elva, Sempronius Atratinus, Valerius Poplicola, were all menil«eis of the dominant order ; and a poet who was singing their praises, whatever his own political opinions might be, would naturally abstain from insulting the class to which they belonged, and tVoni reliecting VIRGINIA. 121 on the system which had placed such men at the head of the legions of the commonwealth. But there was a class of compositions in which the great families were by no means so courteously treated. No parts of early Roman history are richer with poetical colouring than those which relate to the long contest between the privileged houses and the commonalty. The population of Rome was, from a very early period, divided into hereditary castes, which, indeed, readily united to repel foreign enemies, bub which regarded each other, dining many yeai^, with bitter animosity. Between those castes there was a barrier hardly less strong than that which, at Venice, parted the members of the Great Council from their country- men. In some res[)ects, indeed, the line which separated an Icilius or a Duilius from a Postu- mius or a Fabins was even more deeply marked than thit which separated the rower of a gondola from a Oontarini or a Morosini. At Venice the distinction was merely civil. At Rome it was both civil and religious. Among the grievances under which the Plebeians suffered, three were felt as peculiarly severe. They were excluded from the highest magistracies, they were excluded from all share in the public lands, and tliey were iTJ. LAYS OF ANCIENT ROMK. i:ioiuid down to tlie dust by partial and barbarous legislation touching pecuniary contracts. The ruling class in Rome was a moneyed class ; and it made and administered the laws with a view solely to its own interest. Thus the relation be- tween lender and borrower was mixed up with the relation between sovereign and subject. The great men held a large portion of the community in dependence by means of advances at enormous usury. The law of debt, framed by creditors, and for the protection of creditors, was the most horrible that has ever been known among men. The liberty, and even the life, of the insolvent were at the mercy of the Patrician money-lenders. Children often became slaves in consequence of the misfortunes of their parents. The debtor was imprisoned, not in a public gaol under the care of impartial public functionaries, but iu a private workhouse belonging to the creditor. Frightful stories were told respecting these dungeons. Tt was said that torture and l-^rutal violation wero common ; that tight stocks, heavy chains, scanty measures of food, were used to punish wretches guilty of nothing but poverty ; and that brave soldiers, whose breasts were covered with honour- able scars, were often marked still more VIRGINIA. 123 deeply on the back by the scourges of high-boni usurers. The Plebeians were, however, not wholly with- out constitutional rights. From an early period they had been admitted to some share of political power. They were enrolled each in his century, and were allowed a share, considerable though not proportioned to theii* numerical strength, in the disposal of those high dignities from which they were themselves excluded. Thus their position bore some resemblance to that of the Irish Catholics during the interval between the year 1792 and the year 1829. The Plebeians had also the privilege of annually appointing officers, named Tribunes, who had no active share in the government of the Commonwealth, but who, by degrees, acquired a power formidable even to the ablest and most resolute Consuls and Dictators. The person of the Tribune was inviolable ; and though he could directly eflpect little, he could obstruct every tiling. During more than a century after the institution of the Tribuneship, the Commons struggled man- fully for the removal of the grievances under which they laboured ; and, in spite of many checks and reverses, succeeded in wringing concession after 124 LAYS OP ANCIENT ROME. concession from the stubborn aristocracy. At length, in the year of the city 378, both parties mustered their whole strength for their last and most desperate conflict. The popular and active Tribune, Caius Licinius, proposed the three me- morable laws which are called by his name, and which were intended to redress the three great evils of which the Plebeians complained. He was supported, with eminent ability and firmness, by his colleague, Lucius Sextius. The struggle ap- pears to have been the fiercest that ever in any community terminated without an appeal to arms. If such a contest had raged in any Greek city, the streets would have run with blood. But, even in the paroxysms of faction, the Etonian retained his gravity, his respect for law, and his tenderness for the lives of his fellow-citizens. Year after year Licinius and Sextius were re-elected Tribunes. Year after year, if the narrative which has come down to us is to be trusted, they continued to exert, to the full extent, their power of stopping the whole machine of government. No curule magistrates could be chosen ; no military muster could be hel(]. We know too little of the state of Rome in those days to be able to conjecture how, during that long anarchy, the peace was kept, and VIRGINIA. 125 ordinary Justice administered between man and man. The animosity of both parties rose to the greatest height. The excitement, we may well suppose, would have been peculiarly intense at the annual election of Tribunes. On such occasions there can be little doubt that the great families did all that could be done, by threats and caresses, to break the union of the Plebeians. That union, however, proved indissoluble. At length the good cause triumphed. The Licinian laws were carried. Lucius Sextius was the first Plebeian Consul, Caius Licinius the third. The results of this great change were singularly happy and glorious. Two centuries of prosperity, harmony, and victory followed the reconciliation of the orders. IVJ^n who remembered Rome en- gaged in waging petty wars almost within sight of the Capitol lived to see her the mistress of Italy. While the disabilities of the Plebeians continued she was scarcely able to maintain her ground against the Volscians and Hernicans. When those disabilities were removed she rapidly became more than a match for Carthage and Macedon, Daring the great Licinian contest the Plebeian poets were, doubtless, not silent. Even in mo- dern times songs have been by no means without 126 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. influence on public affairs ; and we may therefore infer that, in a society where printing was un- known, and where books were rare, a pathetic or humorous party ballad must have produced effects such as we can but faintly conceive. It is certain that satirical poems were common at Rome from a very early period. The rustics, who lived at a distance fiom the seat of government, and took little part in the strife of factions, gave vent to theii' petty local animosities in coarse Fescennine verse. The lampoons of the city were doubtless of a higher order ; and their sting was early felt by the nobility. For in the Twelve Tables, long before the time of the Licinian laws, a severe punishment was denounced against the citizen who should compose or recite verses reflecting on another. Satire is, indeed, the only sort of composition in which the Latin poets, whose works have come down to us, were not mere imitators of foreign models ; and it is therefore the only sort of com- position in which they have never been rivalled. It was not, like their tragedy, their comedy, their epic and lyric poetry, a hothouse plant which, in return for assiduous and skilful culture, gave only scanty and sickly fruits. It was hardy and full of sap ; and in all the various juices which it yielded VIRGINIA. 127 might be distinguished the flavour of the Ausonian soil. "Satire," says Quinctilian, with just pride, " is all our own." Satire sprang, in truth, naturally from the constitution of the Roman government and from the spirit of the Roman people ; and, though at length subjected to metrical rules derived from Greece, retained to the last an essentially Roman character. Lucilius was the earliest satirist whose works were held in esteem under the Caesars. But many years before Lucilius was born, ISTsevius had been flung into a dungeon, and guarded there with circumstances of unusual rigour, on account of the bitter lines in which he had attacked the great Csecilian family. The genius and spirit of the Roman satirist survived the liberty of their country, and were not extin- guished by the cruel despotism of the Julian and Flavian Emperors. The great poet who told the story of Domitian's turbot was the legitimate successor of those forgotten minstrels whose songs animated the factions of the infant Republic. These minstrels, as Niebuhr has remarked, appear to have generally taken the popular side. We can hardly be mistaken in supposing that, at the great crisis of the civil conflict, they employed themselves in versifying all the most powerful and 128 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME, virulent speeches of the Tribunes, and in heaping abuse on the leaders of the aristocracy. Every personal defect, every domestic scandal, every tradition dishonourable to a noble house, would be sought out, brouglit into notice, and exaggerated. The illustrious head of the aristocratieal party, Marcus Furius Camillus, might perhaps be, in vsome measure, protected by his venerable age and by the memory of his great services to the State. But Appius Claudius Crassus enjoyed no such im- munity. He was descended from a long line of ancestors distinguished by their haughty demeanour, and by the inflexibility with which they had with- stood all the demands of the Plebeian order. While the political conduct and the deportment of the Claudian nobles drew upon them tlie fiercest public hatred, they were accused of wanting, if any credit is due to the early history of Rome, a class of qualities which, in the military commonwealth, is sutficient to cover a multitude of offences. The chiefs of the family appear to have been eloquent, versed in civil business, and learned after the fashion of their age ; but in war they were not dis- tinguished by skill or valour. Some of them, as if conscious where their weakness lay, had, when filling the highest magistracies, taken internal VIEGINIA. 129 administration as their department of public busi- ness, and left the military command to their colleagues. One of them had been intrusted with an army, and had failed ignominiously. None cf them had been honoured with a triumph. None of them had achieved any martial exploit, suc]i as those by which Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, Titas Quinctius Capitolinus, Aulus Cornelius Cos- sus, and, above all, the great Camillus, had extorted the reluctant esteem of the multitude. During the Licinian conflict, Appius Claudius Crassus signalised himself by the ability and severity with which li a harangued against the two great agitators. B » would naturally, tlierefore, be the favourite mark of the Plebeian satirists ; nor would they have been at a loss to find a point on which he was open to attack. His grandfather, called, like himself, Appins Claudius, had left a name as much detested as that of Sextus Tarquinius. This elder Appius hnd been Consul more than seventy years before the introduction of the Licinian laws. By availin;; himself of a singular crisis in public feeling, he had obtained the consent of the Commons to tne abolition of the tribuneship, and had been the chief of that Council of Ten to which the whoJe direct^.on 1:>0 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. of the State had been committed. In a few- months his administration had become univer.^allj odious. It ]]ad been swept away by an irresistible outbreak of poi)ular fury ; and its memory was still held in abhorrence by the whole city. The imme- diate cause of the downfall of this execrable govern- ment was said to have been an attempt made by Appius Claudius upon the chastity of a beautiful young girl of humble bii-th. The story ran that the Decemvir, unable to succeed by bribes and solicitations, resorted to an outrageous act of tyranny. A vile de})endent of the Claudian house laid claim to the damsel as his slave. The cause was brought before the tribunal of Appius. The wicked magistrate, in defiance of the clearest proofs, gave judgment for the claimant. But the girl's father, a brave soldier, saved her from servi- tude and dishonour by stabbing her to the heart in the sight of the whole Forum. That blow was the signal for a general explosion. Camp and city- rose at once ; the Ten were pulled down ; the Tri- buneship was re-established ; and Appius escaped the hands of the executioner only by a volunta,ry death. It can hardly be doubted that a story so admir- ably adapted to the purposes both of the poet and VIRGINIA. 131 of the demagogue would be eagerly seized upon by minstrels burning with hatred against the Patri- cian order, against the Claudian house, and especially against the grandson and namesake of the ijifamous Decemvir. In order that the reader may judge fairly of these fragments of the lay of Virginia, he must imagine himself a Plebeian "^vho has just voted for the re-election of Sextius and Licinius. All the power of the Patricians has been exerted to throw out the two great champions of the Commons. Every Postumius, ^^^milius, and Cornelius has used his influence to the utmost. Debtors have been let out of the workhouses on condition of voting against the men of the people : clients have been posted to hiss and interrupt the favourite candidates : Appius Claudius Crassus has spoken with more than his usual eloquence and asperity : all has been in vain ; Licinius and Sextius have a fifth time carried all the tribes : work is suspended : the booths are closed : the Plebeians bear on their shoulders the two chami)ions of liberty through the Forum. Just at this moment it is announced that a popular poet, a zealous adherent of the Tribunes,, has made a new song which will cut the Claudian nobles to the heart. The crowd gathers round him^ 132 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. and calls on him to recite it. He takes his stand on the spot where, according to tradition, Virginia, more than seventy years ago, was seized by the pandar of Appius, and he begins his story. 133 VIRGINIA. FRAGMENTS OF A LAY SUNG IN THE FORUM ON THE DAY WHEREON LUCIUS SEXTIUS SEXTINUS LATER AN US AND CAIUS LICINIUS CALVUS STOLO WERE ELECTED TRIBUNES OF THE COMMONS THE FIFTH TIME, IN THE YEAR OF THE CITY OCCLXXXII. Ye good men of the Commons, with loving hearts and true, Who stand by the bold Tribunes that still have stood by you, Come, make a circle round me, and mark my tale with care, A tale of what Rome once hath borne, of what Rome yet may bear. This is no Grecian fable, of fountains running wine, Of maids with snaky tresses, or sailors turned to swine. Here, in this very Forum, under the noonday sun, 134 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. * ■ i In sight of all the people, the bloody deed was done. 5 Old men still creep among us who saw that fearful Just seventy years and seven ago, when the wicked • Ten bare sway. | Of all the wicked Ten still the names are held i accursed, ; And of all the wicked Ten Appius Claudius was the worst. He stalked along the Forum like King Tarquin in his pride : Twelve axes waited on him, six marching on a side ; \ The townsmen shrank to right and left, and eyed askance with fear His lowering brow, his curling mouth, which always seemed to sneer : That brow of hate, that mouth of scorn, marks all the kindred still ; I For never was there Claudius yet but wished the Commons ill : Nor lacks he fit attendance ; for close behind his ' heels, With outstretched chin and crouching pace, the client JNIarcus steals, VIRGINIA. 135 His loins girt up to run with speed, be trie errand what it may, And the smile flickering on his cheek, for aught his lord may say, Such varlets pimp and jest for hire among the lying Greeks : Such varlets still are paid to hoot when brave Licinius speaks. Where'er ye shed the honey, the buzzing flies wil' crowd ; Where'er ye fling the carrion, the raven's croak is loud ; Where'er down Tiber garbage floats, the greedy pike ye see ; And wheresoe'er such lord is found, such client still will be. Just then, as through one cloudless chink in a black stormy sky Shines out the dewy morning star, a fair young girl came by. With her small tablets in her hand, and her satchel on her arm, Home she went bounding from the school, nor dreamed of shame or harm ; And past those dreaded axes she innocently ran, 136 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. With bright, frank brow that had not learned to blush at gaze of man ; And up the Sacred Street she turned, and, as she danced along, She warbled gaily to herself lines of the good old song. How foi a sport the princes came spurring from the caoip, And found Lucrece, combing the fleece, under the midnight lamp. The maiden sang as sings the lark, when up he darts his flight From his nest in the green April corn, to meet the morning light ; And Appius heard her sweet young voice, and saw her sweet young face. And loved her with the accursed love of his accursed race, And all along the Forum, and up the Sacred Street, His vulture eye pursued the trip of those small glancing feet. Over the Alban mountains the light of morning broke ; VIRGINIA. 1S7 From all tlie roofs of the Seven Hills curled the thill wreaths of smoke : The city gates were opened; the Forum all alive, With buyers and with sellers was humming like a hive : Blithely on brass and timber the craftsman's stroke was ringing, And blithely o'er her panniers the market girl was singing, And blithely young Virginia came smiling from her home : Ah ! woe for young Virginia, the sweetest maid in Rome ! With her small tablets in her hand, and her satchel on her arm, Forth she went bounding to the school, nor dreamed of shame or harm. She crossed the Forum shining with stalls in alleys gay, And just^ had reached the very spot whereon I stand this day, When up the varlet Marcus came ; not such as when erewhile He crouched behind his patron's heels with the true client smile ; 138 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. He came with lowering forehead, swollen features, and clenched fist. And strode across Virginia's path, and caught her by the wrist. Hard strove the frighted maiden, and screamed with look aghast ; And at her scream from right and left the folk came running fast ; The money-changer Crispus, with his tliin silver hairs, And Hanno from the stately booth glittering with Punic wares, And the strong smith Murjena, grasping a half- forged brand. And Volero the flesher, his cleaver in his hand. All came in wrath and wonder ; for all knew that fair child ; And, as she passed them twice a day, all kissed their hands and smiled ; And the strong smith Muraina gave Marcus such a blow, The caitiff reeled three paces back, and let the maiden go. Yet glared he fiercely round him, and growled in harsh, fell tone, VIRGINIA. 139 " She's mine, and I will have her : I seek but for mine own : She is my slave, born in my house, and stolen away and sold, The year of the sore sickness, ere she was twelve hours old. 'Twas in the sad September, the month of wail and fright, Two augurs were borne forth that morn ; the Consul died ere night, I wait on Ap])ius Claudius, I waited on his sire ; Let him who works the client wrong beware the patron's ire ! " So spake the vailet Marcus ; and dread and silence came On all the people at the sound of the great Claudian name. For then there was no Tribune to speak the word of nnght. Which makes the rich man tremble, and guards the poor mans right. There was no brave Licinius, no honest Sextius then ; But all the city, in great fear, obeyed the wicked Ten. \ iv ijaYo of ancient bome. Yet ere the varlet Marcus again might seize the maid, Who clung tight to Mursena's* skirt, and sobbed, and shrieked for aid, Forth through the throng of gazers the young Icilius pressed, And stamped his foot, and rent his gown, and smote upon his breast. And sprang upon that column by many a minstrel sung, Whereon tkree mouldering helmets, three rusting swoi'ds, are hung. And beckoned to the people, and in bold voice and clear Poured thick and fast the burning words which tyrants quake to hear. " Now, by your children's cradles, now by your fathers' graves, Be men to-day, Quirites, or be for ever slaves ! For this did Servius give us laws 1 For this did Lucrece bleed ? For this was the great vengeance wrought on Tarquin's evil seed ? For this did those false sons make red the axes of their sire ? For this did Scsevola's right hand hiss in the Tuscan fire ? Shall the vile fox-earth awe the race that stormed the lion's den 1 Shall we, who could not brook one lord, crouch to the wicked Ten 1 Oh, for that ancient spirit which curbed the Senate's will ! Oh, for the tents which in old time whitened the Sacred Hill ! In those brave days our fathers stood firmly side by side ; They faced the Marcian fury ; they tamed tlie Fabian pride : They drove the fiercest Quinctius an outcast fortli from Rome : Thfey sent the haughtiest Claudius with shivered fasces home. But what their care bequeathed us our madness flung away : All the ripe fruit of threescore years was blighted in a day. Exult, ye proud Patricians ! Tlie hard-fougl^ fight is o'er. We strove for honours — 'twas in vain : for freedom — 'tis uo more. ^ 142 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. No crier to the polling summons the eager throng ; No Tribune breathes the word of might that guards the weak from wrong. Our very hearts, that were so high, sink down beneath your will. Riches, and lands, and power, and state — ye have them : — keep them still. Still keep the holy lillets ; still keep the purple gown. The axes, and the curule chair, the car, and laurel crown : Still press us for your cohorts, and, when the fight is done, Still fill your garners from the soil which our good swords have won. Still, like a spreading ulcer, which leech-craft may not cure. Let your foul usance eat away the substance of the poor. Still let your haggard debtors bear all their fathers bore ; Still let your dens of torment be noisome as of yore ; No fire when Tiber freezes ; no air in dog-star heat ; VIRGINIA. 143 And store of rods for free-born backs, and holes for free-born feet. ' Heap heavier still the fetters ; bar closer still the grate ; Patient as sheep we yield us up unto your cruel hate. But, by the Shades beneath us, and by the Gods above, Add not unto your cruel hate your yet more cruel love ! Have ye not graceful ladies, whose spotless lineage springs From Consuls, and High Pontiffs, and ancient Alban kings 1 Xiadies, who deign not on our paths to set their tender feet, Who from their cars look down with scorn upon the wondering street, Who in Corinthian mirrors their own proud smi'es behold, And breathe of Capuan odours, and shine with Spanish gold? Then leave the poor Plebeian his single tie to life— The sweet, sweet love of daughter, of sister, and of wife. 144 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. The gentle speech, the balm for all that his vexed soul endures, The kiss, in which he half forgets even such a yoke as yours. Still let the maiden's beauty swell the father's breast with pride ; Still let the bridegroom's arms infold an unpolluted bride. Spare us the inexpiable wrong, the unutterable shame, That turns the coward's heart to steel, the sluggard's blood to flame. Lest, when our latest hope is fled, ye taste of our despair, And learn by proof, in some wild hour, how much the wretched dare." Straightway Virginius led the maid a little space aside, To where the reeking shambles stood, piled up with horn and hide, Cloee to yon low dark archway, where, in a crimson flood, Leaps down to the great sewer the gurgling stream of blood, VIRGINIA. 145 Hard by, a flesher on a block had laid his whittle down : Virginius caught the whittle up, and hid it in his gown. And then his eyes grew very dim, and his throat began to swell, And in a hoarse, changed voice he spake, " Fare- well, sweet child ! Farewell ! Oh ! how I loved my darling I Though stern I sometimes be, To thee, thou know'st I was not so. Who could be so to thee ? And how my darling loved me ! How glad she was to hear My footstep on the threshold when I came back last year ! And how she danced with pleasure to see my civic crown. And took my sword, and hung it up, and brought me forth my gown ! Now, all those things are over — yes, all thy pretty ways, Thy needlework, thy prattle, thy snatches of old lays ; And none will grieve when I go forth, or smile when I retuiTi, I ! 146 LAYS OF ANCIKXT ROME. J V' Or watch beside the okl man's bed, or weep upon ' > his urn. , The house that was the happiest within the Roman j walls, i The house that envied not the wealth of Capua's marble halls, Now, for the brightness of thy smile, must have eternal gloom. And for the music of thy voice, the silence of the tonib. The time is come. See how he points his eager hand this way ! See how his eyes gloat on thy grief, like a kite's upon the prey ! With all his wit, he little deems, that, spurned, betrayed, bereft, The father hath in his despair one fearful refuge left. He little deems that in this hand I clutch what still can save Thy gentle youth from taunts and blows, the portion of the slave ; Yea, and from nameless evil, that passeth taunt ' and blow — 7 Foul outrage which thou knowest not, which thou j shalt never kn^vv. J i . VIRGINIA. 147 Then clasp me round the neck once more, and give me one more kiss ; And now, mine own dear little girl, there is no way but this." With that he lifted high the steel, and smote her in the side. And in her blood she sank to earth, and with one sob she died. Then, for a little moment, all people held their breath ; And through the crowded Forum was stillness as of death ; And in another moment brake forth from one and all A cry as if the Volscians were coming o'er the wall. , Some with averted faces shrieking fled home a- main ; Some ran to call a leech ; and some ran to lift the slain : Some felt her lips and little wrist, if life might there be found ; And some tore up their garments fast, and strove to stanch the wound. In vain they ran, and felt, and stanched ; for never truer blow 148 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. That good right arm had dealt in fight against a Volscian foe. When Appius Claudius saw that deed, he shud- dered and sank down, And hid his lace some little space with the comer of his gown, Till, with white lips and bloodshot eyes, Yirginius tottered nigh. And stood before the judgment-seat, and held the knife on high. " Oh ! dwellers in the nether gloom, avengers of the slain, By this dear blood I cry to you, do right between us twain ; And even as Appius Claudius hath dealt by me and mine, Deal you by Appius Claudius and all the Claudian line!" So spake the slayer of his child, and turned, and went his way ; But first he cast one haggard glance to where the body lay, And writhed, and groaned a fearful groan, and then, with steadfast feet. Strode right across the market-place unto the Sacred Street. VIRGINIA. 149 Then up sprang Appius Claudius : " Stop him ; alive or dead ! Ten thousand pounds of copper to the man who brings his head." He looked upon his clients ; but none would work his will. He looked upon his lictoi^s ; but they trembled, and stood still. And, as Virginias through the press his way in silence cleft, Ever the mighty multitude fell back to right and left. And he hath passed in safety unto his woeful home, And there ta'en horse to tell the camp what deeds are done in Rome. By this the flood of people was swollen from every side, And streets and porches round were filled with that o'erflowing tide ; And close around the body gathered a little train Of them that were the nearest and dearest to the slain. They brought a bier, and hung it with many a cy- press crown, 150 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. And gently they uplifted her, and gently laid her down. The face of Appiiis Claudius wore the Claudian scowl and sneer, And in the Claudian note he cried, " What doth this labble here 1 Have they no crafts to mind at home, that hither- ward they stray ? Ho ! lictors, clear the market-place, and fetch the corpse away ! " Tlie voice of grief and fury till tlien had not been loud ; But a deep sullen murmur wandered among the crowd, Like the moaning noise that goes before the whirl- wind on the deep, Or the growl of a fierce watch-dog but half aroused from sleep. But when the lictors at that word, tall yeomen all and strong, Each with his axe and sheaf of twigs, went down into the throng, Those old men say, who saw that day of sorrow and of sin. That in the Boman Forum was never such a din. VIRGINIA. 151 The wailing, hooting, cursing, the howls of grief and hate. Were heard beyond the Pincian Hill, beyond the Latin Gate. But close around the body, where stood the little train Of them that were the nearest and dearest to the slain, No cries were there, but teeth set fast, low whispers and black frowns. And breaking up of benches, and girding up of gowns. 'Twas well the lictors might not pierce to where the maiden lay. Else surely had they been all twelve torn limb from limb that day. Right glad they were to struggle back, blood streaming from their heads. With axes all in splinters, and raiment all in shreds. Then Appius Claudius gnawed his lip, and the blood left his cheek ; And thrice he beckoned with his hand, and thrice he strove to speak ; And thrice the tossing Forum set up a frightful yell ; 152 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. " See, see, thou dog ! what thou hast done ; and hide thy sliame in hell ! Thou that wouldst make our maidens slaves must first make slaves of men. Tribunes ! Hurrah for Tribunes ! Down with the wicked Ten ! " And straightway, thick as hailstones, came whizzing through the air Pebbles, and bricks, and potsherds, all round the curule chair : And upon Appius Claudius great fear and trem- bling came ; For never was a Claudius yet brave against aught but shame. Though the great houses love us not, we own, to do them right, That the great houses, all save one, have borne them w^ell in fight. Still Caius of Corioli, his triuuiplis and his wrongs, His vengeance and his mercy, live in our camp-fire songs. Beneath the yoke of Furius oft have Gaul and Tuscan bowed ; And Rome may bear the pride of him of whom herself is proud. VIRGINIA. 153 But evermore a Claudius shrinks from a stncken field, And changes colour like a maid at sight of sword and shield. The Claudian triumphs all were won within the city towers ; The Claudian yoke was never pressed on any necks but ours. A Cossus, like a wild cat, springs ever at the face ; A Fabius rushes like a boar against the shouting chase ; But the vile Claudian litter, raging with currish spite, Still yelps and snaps at those who run, still runs from those who smite. So now 'twas seen of Appius. When stones began to fly, He shook, and crouched, and wrung his hands, and smote upon his thigh, *' Kind clients, honest lictors, stand by me in this fray ! Must I be torn in pieces? Home, home, the nearest way ! " While yet he spake, and looked around with a bewildered stare, 154 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. Four sturdy lictors put their necks beneath the curule chair ; And fourscore clients on the left^ and fourscore on the right, Arrayed themselves with swords and staves, and loins girt up for tight. But, though without or stafl" or sword, so furious was the throng. That scarce the train with might and main could bring their lord along. Twelve times the crowd made at him ; five times they seized his gown ; Small chance was his to rise again, if once they got him down : And sharper came the pelting ; and evermore the yell- " Tribunes ! we will have tribunes ! " — rose with a louder swell : And the chair tossed as tosses a bark with tattered sail When raves the Adriatic beneath an Eastern gale. When the Calabrian sea-marks are lost in clouds of spume, And the great Thunder-Cape has donned his veil of inky gloom. VIRGINIA. 155 One stone hit Appius iii the mouth, and one be- neath the ear ; And ere he reached Mount Palatine, he swooned with pain and fear. His cursed head, that he was wont to hokl so high with pride, Kow, like a drunken man's, hung down, and swayed from side to side ; And when his stout retainers had brought him to his door, His face and neck were all one cake of filth and clotted gore. As Appius Claudius was that day, so may his grandson be ! God send Rome one such other sight, and send me there to see ! 156 LAYS OF ANCIENT BOMB. THE PEOPHECY OF CAPYS. It can hardly be necessary to remind any reader that according to the popuhir tradition, Romulus, after he had slain his grand-uncle Amulius, and restored his grandfather Numitor, determined to quit Alba, the hereditary domain of the Sylvian princes, and to found a new city. The Gods, it was added, vouchsafed the clearest signs of the favour with which they regarded the enterprise, and of the high destinies reserved for the young colony. This event was likely to be a favourite theme of the old Latin minstrels. They would naturally attribute the project of Romulus to some divine intimation of the power and prosperity which it was decreed that his city should attain. They would probably introduce seers foretelling the victories of unborn Consuls and Dictators, and the last great victory would generally occupy the most conspicuous place in the prediction. There is THE PBOPHECY OF CAPYS. l57 nothing strange in the supposition that the poet who was employed to celebrate the first great triumph of the Romans over the Greeks might throw his song of exultation into this form. The occasion was' one likely to excite the strongest feelings of national pride. A great out- rage had been followed by a great retribution. Seven years before this time Lucius Postumius Megillus, who sprang from one of the noblest houses of Rome, and liad been thrice Consul, was sent ambassador to Tarentum, with charge to demand reparation for grievous injuries. The Tarentines gave him audience in their theatre, where he addressed them in such Greek as he could command, which, we may well believe, was not exactly such as Cineas would have spoken. An exquisite sense of the ridiculous belonged to the Greek character ; and closely connected with this faculty was a strong propensity to flip[)ancy and impertinence. When Postumius placed an accent wrong, his hearers burst into a laugh. When he remonstrated, they hooted him, and called him barbarian ; and at length hissed him off the stage as if he had been a bad actor. As the grave Roman retired, a buffoon who, from his constant drunkenness, was nicknamed the Pint-pot, V>S LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. aiiie up witli gestures of tlie grossest indecency, and bespattered the senatorial gown with tilth. Postumiiis turned round to the multitude, and held up the gown, as if appealing to the universal law of nations. The sight only increased the in- solence of the Tarentines. They clapped their hands, and set up a shout of laughter which shook the theatre. " Men of Tareutum." said Postu- mius, " it will take not a little blood to wash this L'own." Rome, in consequence of this insult, declared war against the Tarentines. The Tarentines sought for allies beyond the Ionian Sea. Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, came to their help with a large army ; and, for the first time, the two great nations of antiquity were fairly matched against each other. The fame of Greece in arms, as ^ve\\ as in arts, was then at the height. Half a century earlier, the career of Alexander had excited the admiration and terror of all nations, from the Ganges to the Pillars of Hercules. Royal houses, founded by Macedonian captains, still reigned at Antioch and Alexandria. That barbarian warriors, led by barbarian chiefs, should win a pitched battle against Greek valour guided by Greek science. THE PROPHECY OF CAPYS. 15J> seemed as incredible . as it would now seem that the Burmese or the Siamese should, in the open plain, put to flight an equal number of the best English troops. The Tarentines M^ere convinced that their countrymen were irresistible in war ; and this conviction had emboldened them to treat with the grossest indignity one whom they re- garded as the representative of an inferior race. Of the Greek generals then living, Pyrrhus was indisputably the first. Among the troops who were trained in the Greek discipline, his Epirotes ranked high. His expedition to Italy was a turning point in the history of the world. He found there a people who, far inferior to the Athenians and Corinthians in the line arts, in the speculative sciences, and in all the refinements of life, were the best soldiers on the face of the earth. Their arms, their gradations of rank, their order of battle, their method of intrenchment, were all of Latian origin, and had all been gradually brought near to perfection, not by the study of foreion models, but by the genius and experience of many generations of great native commanders. The first words which broke from the king, when his practised eye had surveyed the Koman encamp- ment, were full of meaning : — " These barbarians," Ib'U LAYS OF AXCIENT ROME. he said, "have nothing harharous in their military arrangements." He was at lirst victorious ; for his own talents were superior to those of the captains who were opposed to him ; and tlie Romans were not prepared for the onset of the elephants of the East, which were then for the first time seen in Italy — moving mountains, with long snakes for hands. But the victories of the Epirotes were fiercely disputed, dearly purchased, and altogether unprofitable. At length, Manius Curius Dentatus, who had in his first Consulship won two triumphs, was again placed at the head of the Roman Commonwealth, and sent to encounter the invaders. A great battle was fought near Bene vent um. Pyrrhus was completely defeated. He repassed the sea ; and the world learned, with amazement, that a people had been discovered, who, in fair fighting, were superior to the best troops that had been drilled on the system of Parmenio and Antigonus. The conquerors had a good right to exult in their success ; for their glory was all their own. They had not learned from their enemy how to conquer him. It was with their own national arms, and in their own national battle-array, that they had overcome weapons and tactics long believed to be THE PROPHECY OF CAPYS. 161 invincible. The pilum and the broadsword had vanquished the Macedonian spear. The legion had broken the Macedonian phalanx. Even the elephants, when the surprise produced by their first appearance was over, could cause no disorder in the steady yet flexible battalions of Rome. It is said by Florus, and may easily be believed, that the triumph far surpassed in magnificence any that Rome had previously seen. The only spoils which Paparius Cursor and Fabius Maximus could exhibit were flocks and herds, waggons of rude structure, and heaps of spears and helmets. But now, for the first time, the riches of Asia and the arts of Greece adorned a Roman pageant. Plate, fine stuff's, costly furniture, rare animals^ exquisite paintings and sculptures, formed part of the pro- cession. At the banquet would be assembled a crowd of warriors and statesmen, among whom Manius Curius Dentatus would take the highest room. Caius Fabricius Luscinus, then, after two Consulships and two triumphs Censor of the Com- monwealth, would doubtless occupy a place of honour at the board. In situations less con- spicuous probably lay some of those who were, a few years later, the terror of Carthage ; Caius Duilius, the founder of the maritime greatness of I(j2 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. his country ; Marcus Atilius Regulus, who owet] to defeat a renown far higher than that which he had derived from his victories ; and Caius Lutatius (Jatulus, who, while suffering from a grievous wound, fought the great battle of the ^^gates, and brought the first Punic war to a triumphant close. It is impossible to recount the names of these eminent citizens without reflecting that they were all, without exception, Plebeians, and would, but for the ever-memorable struggle maintained by Caius Licinius and Lucius Sextius, have been doomed to hide in obscurity, or to waste in civil broils, the ca- pacity and energy which prevailed against Pyrrhus and Harailcar. On such a day we may suppose that the patriotic enthusiasm of a Latin poet would vent itself in reiterated shouts of lo triumphs^ such as were uttered by Horace on a far less exciting occasion, and in boasts resembling those which Virgil put into the mouth of Anchises. The superiority of some foreign nations, and especially of the Greeks, in the lazy arts of peace, would be admitted with disdainful candour ; but pre-eminence in all the qualities which fit a people to subdue and govern mankind would be claimed for the Romans. The following lay belongs to the latest age of THE PROPHECY OF OAPYS. 16'-J Latin ballad-poetry. Naevius and Livius Andro- nicus were probably among the children whose mothers held them up to see the chariot of Curiiis go by. The minstrel who sang on that day might possibly have lived to read the first hexameters of Ennius, and to see the first comedies of Plautii ^. His poem, as might be expected, shows a much wider acquaintance with the geography, manners, and productions of remote nations, than would have been found in compositions of the age of Camillus. But he troubles himself little about dates, and having heard travellers talk with ad- miration of the Colossus of Rhodes, and of the structures and gardens with which the Macedonian kings of Syria had embellished their residence on the banks of the Orontes, he has never thought of inquiring whether these things existed in the age of Romulus. 164 LAYS OF AJSCIENT liOJSlB. THE PROPHECY OF CAPYS. A LAY SUNG AT THE BANQUET IN THE CAPITOL, ON THE DAY WHEREON MANIUS CURIUS DEN- TATUS, A SECOND TIME CONSUL, TRIUMPHED OVER KING PYRRHUS AND THE TARENTINES, IN THE YEAR OF THE CITY CCCCLXXIX. I. Now slain is King Amulius, Of the great Sylvian line, Who reigned in Alba Longa, On the throne of Aventine. Slain is the Pontiff Gamers, Who spake the words of doom " The children to the Tiber ; The mother to the tomb." XL In Alba's lake no fisher His net to-day is flinging : On the dark rind of Alba's oaks To-day no axe is ringing : THE PROPHECY OF CAPTS. 165 The yoke hangs o'er the maiiger : The scythe lies in the hay : Through all the Alban villages No work is done to-day. III. And every Alban burgher Hath donned his whitest gown ; And every head in Alba Weareth a poplar crown ; And every Alban door-post With boughs and flowers is gay : For to-day the dead are living; The lost are found to-day. IV. They were doomed by a bloody king : They were doomed by a lying priest : They were cast on the raging flood : They were tracked by the raging beast : Raging beast and raging flood Alike have spared the prey ; And to-day the dead are living : The lost are found to-day. V. The troubled river knew them, And smoothed his yellow foam, 166 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. And gently rocked the cradle That bore the fate of Rome. The ravening she-wolf knew them, And licked them o'er and o'er, And gave them of her own fierce milk Eich with raw flesh and gore. Twenty winters, twenty springs, Since then have rolled away ; And to-day the dead are living : The lost are found to-day. VI. Blithe it was to see the twins, Right goodly youths and tall, Marching from Alba Longa To their old grandsire's halL Along their path fresh garlands Are hung from ti-ee to tree : Before them stride the pipers, Piping a note of glee. VII. On the right goes Romulus, With anns to the elbows red, And in his hand a broadsword, And on the blade a head — THE PROPHECY OF CAPYS. 167 A head in an iron helmet, With horsehair hanging down, A bliaggy head, a swarthy head, Fixed in a ghastly frown — The head of King Amulius, Of the great Sylvian line, Who reigned in Alba Longa, On the throne of Aventine. VIII. On the left side goes Remus, With wrists and fingers red. And in his hand a boar-spear, And on the point a head — A wrinkled head and aged. With silver beard and hair, And holy fillets round it. Such as the pontiffs wear — The head of ancient Gamers, Who spake the words of doom : *' The children to the Tiber ; The mother to the tomb." IX. Two and two behind the twins Their trusty comrades go, 168 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. Four and forty valiant men, With club, and axe, and bow. On each side every hamlet Pours forth its joyous crowd, Shouting lads and baying dogs And children laughing loud, And old men weeping fondly As Khea's boys go by, And maids who shriek to see the heads. Yet, shrieking, press more nigh. X. So they marched along the lake ; They marched by fold and stall, By corn-field and by vineyard, Unto the old man's hall. XI. In the hall-gate sate Capys, Capys, the sightless seer ; From head to foot he trembled As Romulus drew near. And up stood stiff his thin white hair And his blind eyes Hashed fire : •' Hail ! foster child of the wondrous nurse I Hail ! son of the wondrous sire ! i THE PROPHECY OF CAPT8. 169 XII. "But thou — what dost thou here lu the old man's peaceful hall 1 What doth the eagle in the coop, The bison in the stall 1 Our corn fills many a garner ; Our vines clasp many a tree ; Our flocks are white on many a hill. But these are not for thee. XIII. **ror thee no treasure ripens In the Tartessian mine : For thee no ship brings precious bales Across the Libyan brine : Thou shalt not drink from amber ; Thou shalt not rest on down. ; Arabia shall not steep thy locks, Nor Sidon tinge thy gown. XIV. " Leave gold and myrrh and jewels, Kich table and soft bed, To them who of man's seed are bom, Whom woman's milk hath fed. 170 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. Thou wast not made for lucre, For pleasure, nor for rest ; Thou, that art sprung from the War-god's loins, And hast tugged at the she-wolfs breast. XV. " From sunrise unto sunset All earth shall hear thy fame : A glorious city thou shalt build. And name it by thy name : And there, unquenched througli ages. Like Vesta's sacred fire, Shall live the spirit of thy nurse, The spirit of thy sire. XVI. * The ox toils through the furrow, Obedient to the goad ; The patient ass, up flinty paths, Plods with his weary load ; With whine and bound the spaniel His master's whistle hears ; And the sheep yields her patiently To the loud clashing shears. THE PROPHECY OP CAPYS. 171 XVII. But thy nurse will hear no master ;. Thy nurse will bear no load ; And woe to them that shear her^ And woe to them that goad 1 When all the pack, loud baying, Her bloody lair surrounds, She dies in silence, biting hard, Amidst the dying hounds. , XVIII. " Pomona loves the orchard ; And Liber loves the vine ; And Pales loves the straw-built shed Warm with the breath of kine ; And Venus loves the whispers Of plighted youth and maid, In April's ivory moonlight Beneath the chestnut shade. XIX. " But thy father loves the clashing Of broadsword and of shield : He loves to drink the steam that reeks From the fresh battle-field ; 172 LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. He smiles a smile more dreadful Than his own dreadful frown, When he sees the thick black cloud oi smoke Go up from the conquered town. XX. * And such as is the War-god, The author of thy line, And such as she who suckled thee, Even such be thou and thine. Leave to the soft Campanian His baths and his perfumes ; Leave to the sordid race of Tyre Their dyeing- vats and looms : Leave to the sons of Carthage The rudder and the oar : Leave to the Greek his marble Nymphs And scrolls of wordy lore. XXI. ** Thine, Roman, is the pilum : Roman, the sword is thine, The even trench, the bristling mound. The legion's ordered line j THE PROPHECY OF CAPYS. 173 And thine the wheels of triumph, Wliich with their laurelled train Move sloM^ly lip the shouting streets To Jove's eternal fane. XXII. " Beneath thy yoke the Volscian Shall vail his lofty brow : Soft Capua's curled revellers Before thy chairs shall bow : The Lucumoes of Arnus Shall quake thy rods to see ; And the proud Samnite's heart of steel Shall yield to only thee. XXIII. "The Gaul shall come against thee From the land of snow and niirht : Thou shalt give his fair-haired armies To the raven and the kite. XXIV. «* The Greek shall come against thee, The conqueror of the East. Beside him stalks to battle The huge earth-shaking beast, 174i LAYS OF AXCIENT ROME. Tlie boast on whom the castle With all its guards doth stand, # The boast who hath between his eyes The serpent for a hand. First march the bold Epirotes, Wedi2:ed close with shield and spear; And the ranks of false Tarentum Are glittt^ring in the rear. XXV. The ranks of false Tarentum Like hunted sheep shall fly : In vain the bold Epirotes Shall round their standards die : And A Pennine's grey vultures Shall have a noble feast On the fat and the eyes Of the huge earth-shaking beast. XXVI. " Hurrah ! for the good weapons That keep the War-god's land. Hurrah ! for Rome's stout pilum In a stout Roman hand. Hurrah ! for Rome's shoi-t broadsword. That through the thick array THE PROPHECY OF CAPYS. Of levelled spears and serried shit4ds % Hews deep its gory way. XXVII. " Hurrah ! for the great triumph That stretches many a mile. Hurrah ! for the wan captives That pass in endless file. Ho ! bold Epirotes, whither Hath the Eed King ta'en flight ] Ho ! dogs of false Tarentum, Is not the gown washed white 1 XXVIII. ** Hurrah ! for the great triumph That stretches many a mile. Hurrah ! for the rich dye of Tyr^ And the fine web of Nile, The helmets gay with plumage Torn fi'om the pheasant's wings, The belts set thick with staruy gems That shone on Indian kings, The urns of massy silver, The goblets rough with gold. The many-coloured tablets bright With loves and wars of old 17*) LAYS OF ANCIENT ROME. The stone that breathes and struggles, The brass that seems to speak ; — Such cunning they who dwell on high Have given unto the Greek. XXIX. •' Hurrah ! for Manius Curius, The bravest son of Rome, Thrice in utmost need sent forth, Thrice drawn in triumph home. Weave, weave, for Manius Curius The third embroidered gown : Make ready the third lofty car, And twine the third green crown ; And yoke the steeds of Kosea With necks like a bended bow, And deck the bull, Mevania's bull, The bull as white as snow. xxx. •* Blestj and thrice blest the Roman Who sees Rome's brightest day, Who sees that long victorious pomp Wind down the Sacred Way, And through the bellowing Forum, And round the Suppliant's Grove, THE PROPHECY OF CAPYS. 177 Up to the everlasting gates Of Capitolian Jove. XXXI. " Then where, o*er two bright heavens The towers of Corinth frown ; Where the gigantic King of Day On his own Rhodes looks down ; Where soft Orontes murmurs Beneath the laurel shades ; Where Nile reflects the endless length Of dark-red colonnades ; Where in the still deep water, Sheltered from waves and blasts, Bristles the dusky forest Of Byrsa's thousand masts ; Where fur-clad hunters wander Amidst the northern ice ; Where through the sand of morning-land The camel bears the spice ; Where Atlas flings his shadow Far o'er the western foam, Shall be great fear on all who hear The mighty name of Rome." IVEY, AND THE ARMADA. ' IVRT: A SONG OP THE HUGUENOTS. Kow glorj to the Lord of Hosts, from whom all glories are ! And glory to our Sovereign Liege, King Henry of Navarre ! Now let there be the merry sound of music and of dance, Through thy corn-fields green, and sunny vines, oh pleasant land of France ! ! And thou, Rochelle, our own Rochelle, proud city of the waters, , Again let rapture light the eyes of all thy mourn- ing daughters. As thou werii constant in our ills, be joyous in our joy, For cold, and stiff, and still are they who wrought thy walls annoy. Hurrah ! Hurrah ! a single field hath turned the chance of war, Hurrah ! Hurrah ! for Ivry, and Henry of Navarre. l^J IVRY. Oh ! how our hearts were beating, when, at the daAvn of day, We saw the army of the League drawn out in long array ; With all its priest-led citizens, and all its rebel peers. And Api)enzers stout infantry, and Egmont's Flemish spears. There rode the brood of false Lorraine, the curses of our land ; And dark Mayenne was in the midst, a truncheon in his hand : And, as we looked on them, we thought of Seine's empurpled flood. And good Coligny's hoary hair all dabbled with his blood ; And we cried unto the living God, who rules the fate of war. To fight for His own holy name, and Henry of Navarre. The King is come to marshal us, in all his armour drest, And he has bound a snow-white plume upon his gallant crest. He looked upon his people, and a tear was in his eye; IVRY. 183 He looked upon the traitors, and his glance was stern and high. Right graciously he smiled on us, as rolled from wing to wing, Down all our line, a deafening shout, " God save our Lord the King ! " " And if my standard-bearer fall, as fall full well he may. For never saw I promise yet of such a bloody fray, Press where ye see my white plume shine, amidst the ranks of war, And be your oriflamme to-day the helmet of Navarre." Hurrah ! the foes are moving. Hark to the mingled din Of fife, and steed, and trump, and drum, and roar- ing culverin. The fiery Duke is pricking fast across St. Andre's plain, With all the hireling chivalry of Guelders and Almayne. Now by the lips of those ye love, fair gentlemen of France, 184 rvBY. Charge for the golden lilies, — upon them with the lance. A thousand spurs are striking deep, a thousand spears in rest, A thousand knights are pressing close behind the snow-white crest ; And in they burst, and on they rushed, while like a guiding star. Amidst the thickest carnage blazed the helmet of Navarre. NoAv, God be praised, the day is ours. Mayenne hath turned his rein. DAumale hath cried for quarter. The Flemish count is slain. Their ranks are breaking like thin clouds before a Biscay gale ; The field is heaped with bleeding steeds, and flags, and cloven mail. And then we thought on vengeance, and, all along our van, "Remember St. Bartholomew!" was passed from man to man. But out spake gentle Henry, " No Fienchman is my foe; IVET. 135 Down, down with every foreigner, but let your brethren go." Oh ! was there ever such a knight, in friendship or in war, As our Sovereign Lord, King Henry, the soldier of Navarre ? Right well fought all the Frenchmen who fought for France to-day ; And many a lordly banner God gave them for a prey ; But we of the religion have borne us best in fight ; And the good lord of Rosny has ta'en the comet white. Our own true Maximilian the cornet white hath ta'en. The cornet white with crosses black, the flag of false Lorraine. Up with it high ; unfurl it wide ; that all the host may know How God hath humbled the proud house which wrought His church such woe. Then on the ground, while trumpets sound their loudest point of war, Fling the red shreds, a footcloth meet for Henry of Navarre. llo! maidens of Vienna; Ho! matrons of Lucerne; AVeep, weep, and rend your hair for those who never shall return. Ho ! Philip, send, for charity, thy Mexican pis- toles, That Antwerp monks may sing a mass for thy poor spearmen's souls. Ho ! gallant nobles of the League, look that your arms be bright ; Ho ! burghers of Saint Genevieve, keep watch and ward to-night. Por our God hath crushed the tyrant, our God hath raised the slave. And mocked the counsel of the wise, and the valour of the brave. Then glory to His holy name, from whom all glories are ; And glory to our Sovereign Lord, King Henry of Navarre. THE ARMADA. A FRAGMENT. Attend, all ye who list to hear our noble England's praise ; I tell of the thrice-famous deeds she wrought in ancient days, When that great fleet invincible against her bore in vain The richest spoils of Mexico, the stoutest hearts of Spain. It was about the lovely close of a warm summer day, There came a gallant merchant-ship full sail to Plymouth Bay ; Her crew had seen Castile's black fleet, beyond Aurigny's Isle, At earliest twilight, onj the waves, lie heaying many a mile. At sunrise she escaped their van, \y God's especial grace ; And the tall Pinta, till the noon had held her close in chase. 188 THE ARMADA. Forthwith a guard at every gun was placed along the wall ; The beacon blazed upon the roof of Edgecumbe's lofty haU ; Many a light fishing jbark put [out to ]pry along the coast, And with loose rein and bloody spur rode inland many a post. With his white hair unbonneted, the stout old sheriff comes ; Behind him march the halberdiers ; before him sound the drums ; His yeomen round the market cross make clear an ample space ; For there behoves him to set up the standard of Her Grace. And haughtily the trumpets peal, and gaily dance the bells, As slow upon the labouring wind the royal blazon swells. Look how the Lion of the sea lifts up his ancient crown, And underneath his deadly paw treads the gay lilies down. So stalked he when he turned to flight, on that fanu'.l Piofuxl field, THE ARMADA, 189 Bohemia's plume, and Genoa's bow, and Csesar's eagle shield. So glared he when at Agincourt in wrath he turned to bay, And crushed and torn beneath his claws the princely hunters lay. Ho ! strike the flagstaff deep, Sir Knight : ho ! scatter flowers, fair maids : Ho ! gunners, fire a loud salute : ho ! gallants, draw your blades : Thou sun, shine on her joyously ; ye breezes, waft her wide ; Our glorious semper eadem, the banner of our pride. The freshening breeze of eve unfurled that banner's massy fold ; The parting gleam of sunshine kissed that haughty scroll of gold ; Night sank upon the dusky beach, and on the purple sea, Such night in England ne'er had been, nor e'er again shall be. From Eddystone to Berwick bounds, from Lynn to Milford Bay, That time of slumber was as bright and busy as the day ; 190 THE ARMADA. For swift to east and swift to west the gliastly war-Hame spread, High on St. Michael's Mount it shone : it shone on Beachy Head. Far on the deep the Spaniard saw, along each southern shire, Cape beyond cape, in endless range, those twink- ling points of fire. The fisher left his skiff to rock on Taniar's glitter- ing waves, The rugged miner poured to war from Mendip's sunless caves : O'er Longleat's towers, o'ei Cranbourne's oaks, the fiery herald flew : He roused the shepherds of Stonehenge, the rangers of Beaulieu. Right sharp and quick the bells all night rang out from Bristol town, And ere the day three hundred horse had met on * Clifton down ; The sentinel on Whitehall gate looked forth into the night, And saw o'erhanging JRichmond Hill the streak of blood-red light, Then bugle's note and cannon's roar the death-like silence broke, THE ARMADA. 191 And with one start, and with one cry, tlie royal city woke. At once on all her stately gates arose the answering fires ; At once tlie wild alarum clashed from all her reeling spires ; From all the batteries of the Tower pealed loud the voice of fear ; And all the thousand masts of Thames sent back a louder cheer ; And from the farthest wards was heard the rush of hurrying feet, And the broad streams of pikes and flags rushed down each roaring street ; And broader still became the blaze, and louder still the din, As fast from every village round the horse came spurring in : And eastward straight from wild Blackheath the warlike errand went, <^ And roused in many an ancient hall the gallant squires of Kent. Southward from Surrey's pleasant hills flew those bright couriers forth ; High on bleak Hampstead's swarthy moor they started for the north ; 192 THIS JUSMADA. And on, and on, without a pause, untired they bounded stiJl : All night from tower to tower they sprang ; the\ sprang from hill to hill : Till the proud Peak unfurled the flag o'er Darwin's rocky dales. Till like volcanoes flared to heaven the stormy hills of Wales, Till twelve fair counties saw the blaze on Mal- vern's lonely height. Till streamed in crimson on the wind the Wrekin's crest of light, Till broad and fierce the star came forth on Ely's stately fane, And tower and hamlet rose in arms o'er all the boundless plain ; Till Belvoir's lordly terraces tlie sign to Lincoln sent, And Lincoln sped the message on o'er the wide vale of Trent ; Tilf Skiddaw saw the fire that burned on Gaunt's embattled pile. And the red glare on Skiddaw roused the burghers of Carlisle. CItOSJBY'SS VITALIZED PHOSPHITES For Fifteen Years has been a Standard Remedy with Physicians who best treat Mental or Nervous De- rangements. " I find Vitalized Phosphites indispensable after severe sickness and absolutely necessary in the treatment of frac- tures. It is of great benefit in nervous exhaustion. I have taken it myself." WILLARD PARKER, M.D., Professor of Surgery, 41 E. 12th Street, N. Y. "I use Vitalized Phosphites to relieve my patients from the nervous depression that follows surgical operations." ALFRED C. POST, M.D., Professor of Surgery, 291 Madison Av. " I could not treat nervous derangements successfully without Vitalized Phosphites. " GEO. M. BEARD, M.D., Professor of Nervous Diseases, 13 W. 2Qth Street. " I have made a careful analysis of Crosby's Vitalized Phosphites. I find that my analysis closely corresponds with that made by Prof. Percy. It is an excellent prepara- tion, free from all dangerous ingredients and admirably adapted for the treatment of nervous diseases. " JOHN C. DRAPER, M.D., Professor of Chemistry, 429 Lexington Av. " Every one speaks well of Vitalized Phosphites." — Ch?istian at JVork. F. CROSBY CO., 56 W. 25th St., N. Y. FOR SALE BY DRUGGISTS, OR BY MAIL, ONE DOLLAR. CASSELL'S NATIONAL LIBRARY. Edited by Prof. Henry Morley, LL.D. A series of weekly volumes, each containing about 200 pages, clear, readable print, on good paper, at the low price of TEN CENTS PER VOLUME, Or iu Clotb Oxtra, 25 €euts per Vol. 1— My Ten Years' Imprisonment. .Silvio Pelijco. 2 -Childe Harold's Pilgi'lmag-e. Lord Byron. 3— Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. 4— The Complete Angler. Isaac Walton. 5— The Man of Feeling. Hexry Mackenzie. 6— The School for Scandal and The Rivals. H. B. Sheridan. 7— Sermons on the Card. Other Discourses. Bishop Latimer. 8— Lives of Alexander and Caesar. Plutarch. 9- The Castle of Otranto. Horace Walpole. 10— Voyages and Travels. Sir John Mai-ndeville. 11— She Stoops to Conquer, etc. Oliver Goldsmith. 12— Adventures of Baron Trenck. Vol. I. Thomas Holcroft. 13— Adventui-es of Baron Trenck. 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Macaulay 59— Sermons on Evil Speaking. Isaac Barrow, M.D. CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited, 739 and 741 Broadway, New York. CASSELL'S "RAINBOW" SERIES OF NEW AND ORIGINAL NOVELS. By Popular American and Foreign Authors. In Large i2mo. volumes of 192. pages each. Elegantly printed on good paper and bound in paper cover. PRICE TWEN TY-FIVE CEN TS PER VOLUME. NOW TrEADY. AS IT WAS WRITTEN.-A Jewish Musician's Story. By Sidney Luska. Author of " Mrs. Peixada," etc. WANTED-A SENSATION; A Saratoga Inci- dent. By Edward S. Van Zile. A MORAL SINNER. By MvRTiLLA N. Daly. SCRUPLES. By Mrs. T. H. Walworth, author of " Bar Sinster," etc. etc. MARVELOUS IN OUR EYES. By Emma E. Hoknibrook. WITNESS MY HAND. By the author of " Lady Gwendolen's Tryst." A PRINCE OF DARKNESS. By Florence Warden, author of " The House on the Marsh," etc. KING SOLOMON'S MINES. A Thrilling Story founded on an African Legend. By H. Rider Haggard, author of " Dawn," " The Witch's Head," etc. NATASQUA. 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" The Bar-Sinister " is a novel which will attract more than ordi- nary attention. The text is Mormonism,' the bar-sinister on the escutcheon of this great republic. ^The characters introduced are every-day people. The hero, a New York business man, who goes to Salt Lake City with his wife and baby, and who falls a victim to the enticements of the "saints."— CAr:V//a» at Work. A well-constructed story, that is developed by a plot to a strong finale, in good literary form and with a pleasing literary style, and that will be read with the greatest interest and feeling — indeed it has the power to inflame public opinion as no other with its purpose has ever done. — Boston Globe. One of the most powerfully written books of the season. — Lawrence American. It is the best novel of the summer. — Examiner^ N. Y, CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited. 739 and 741 Broadway, New York. JUST PUBLISHED. WITHOUT BLEMISH, To-Day's Problem. By Mrs. J. H. 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The book is a most able and successful study of native character- by one who possesses a wide personal knowledge of his subject — as dis- played in a series of adventures, marvelous as the most wonder-loving youth could desire. The interest never flags, from the page on which the three travelers set forth on their seemingly hopeless quest, to that which records the close of their wanderings. It may be added, for the satisfaction of the incredulous, that the horrors of the " witch-hunt " are nowise exaggerated, but that, on the contrary, much of its barbarity is suppressed, some of the actual pro- ceedings among people of the Zulu race on such occasions being too awful to set forth. The work is one which will prove acceptable to older reade^i at well as to the boys for whom it is avowedly written. CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited, 739 and 741 Broadway, New York, THE NEW AMERICAN NOVEL, TRAJAN. The History of a Sentimental Young Man, with some Episodes In the Comedy of Many Lrves' Errors. 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A NOVEL, By Phiup Woolf, M. D. i vol., i6mo., clotK Price $i. An interesting tale, with a dinoument that will astonish the reader. BY THE AUTHOR OF ** AS IT WAS WRITTEN." MRS. PEIXADA. By Sidney Luska. i vol. i6mo. Price, $l.oa •• The story begins with the very first page, and th jre is no let up till the end is reached. Mr. Luska has the happy faculty of holding his readers' attention through eveiy page of his books. *♦ The author is a wonderful writer, a born story teller ; his stories will not only please the passing moment, but last as an illustration of the best in American Literature." •^Evening Post, Hartford. CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited, 7»9 and 741 Broadwav, New York. By Author of " THE BAB-SINISTER." THE NEff MAN AT BOSSMERE. By Mrs. J. H. Walworth, author of " The Bar- Sinister," "Without Blemish," "Old Fulkerson's Clerk," "Scruples," etc., etc. 1 Vol., 16mo, extra cloth. Price $1.25. 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